PICTURES 



OP 



SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAYEM. 



ADVANTAGES OF NEGRO SLAVERY AND THE 
BENEFITS OF NEGRO FREEDOM. 



MORALLY, SOCIALLY, AND POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. 



BY, 
JOHN BELL V ROBINSON. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
1330 NORTH THIRTEENTH STREET. 

1863. 






Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by 

JOHN BELL ROBINSON, 

in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States 
in and for the Eastern District of the State of Pennsylvania. 

(ii) 



PREFACE 



To the people of the United States and the Christian 
ministry ; especially those of them who seem to 
have forgotten the "prize of their high calling, 17 
and have converted their pulpits into places of politi- 
cal, sectional strife, and rendezvous for recruiting in 
civil war. 

I have written the following chapters on the relation 
between Christianity, civilization, the prosperity of the 
universe, and negro slavery. I have long feared a dis- 
solution of this great and glorious Union would sooner 
or later occur in consequence of sectional, political 
questions being introduced into the pulpits of the 
Christian church, believing it to be as much infidelity to 
have introduced the slave question into the church, in the 
way it has mostly been done, as it would be to deny that 
the several Epistles of Paul were a part of the Gospel. 

Had I not just grounds for fears when the General 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church divided 
in 1844 on the slave question, and a majority of that 
body deposed a bishop who stood high for his talents, 
zeal, and great moral worth, who had never owned a 
slave, though a Georgian by birth, education, and resi- 
dence through his entire life, but had recently married 
a lady who, a short time before, fell heir to two or 
three little negro children, whom she had to raise up to 
maturity ? For marrying this lady, Bishop Andrews 
was suspended from his office as bishop. Since that 

(in > 



IV PKEFACE. 

day I have feared just what is now upon us, and at 
every fit opportunity since, I have tried to make jse 
who led that dangerous experiment (and all others -ho 
seemed to approve of the course of that General Con- 
ference) see the ruin they would plunge both church 
and State into, if they did not stop their denunciations 
of slavery from their pulpits, and treat the question 
as St. Paul did in his day. 

I have often desired to write and publish my opinions to 
the world, but being without an education, and but little 
schooling, the Child's Primer, Webster's Speller, En- 
glish Reader, and Bennett's Arithmetic, having been 
the only school books used in those days, where I was 
schooled, and any knowledge beyond the rudiments of 
these branches was thought ruinous to all scholars who 
should happen to pass those limits. An educated man 
or woman was thought very dangerous, therefore the 

children were not allowed to cross those limits, conse- 
nt ' 

quently I felt that I was incompetent to such a- duty. 
But when the John Brown raid was made in Virginia, I 
was satisfied something would have to be speedily done, 
or our end as a republic and a free people was near. 
Knowing there was no other sectional question besides 
the slave question, and that no other could jeopardize 
our national Union, I thought I would write a pam- 
phlet of some twenty-five or thirty pages, contrasting 
slaves with free negroes, and slave negro labor with free 
negro labor, showing the superiority of one to the other, 
to which I have devoted Chapter III. of this book. 
But I soon found I had given myself too short a limit, 
and I have written some eight or nine hundred pages, 
12mo., all of which was ready in the summer of 1861 ; 
but finding nearly all of my old friends so directly op- 
posed to me, and being denounced with such bitterness 



PKEFACE. • v 

by some, and ridiculed by others, that I found my moral 
courage not equal to the task, so I was kept back in 
that way till other circumstances intervened, which 
stopped me until now, and now I only feel at liberty 
to publish half of the work. 

A part of the second chapter was written for the New 
York Methodist in 1860, but was refused a place in 
that paper, for reasons the reader will see in the corres- 
pondence between my friend, the Reverend Mr. Crooks, 
and myself, at the end of the chapter ; it was returned 
to me in the following February ; after which time I 
enlarged it to its present size by discussing the points 
more extensively. The first and second chapters are on 
human slavery, as set forth in the Bible. The ap- 
pendix and the other chapters fully sustain my position. 
Then I have copied two written addresses by ex-Sena- 
tor Bigler of Pa., one on the Crittenden Compromise, 
the other on the only plan by which this Union can 
ever be restored. 

I know I shall meet with bitter opposition and severe 
denunciations for my views, but knowing that with the 
overthrow of this Union will end all my hopes of peace 
and pleasure in this world, not only mine, but all others, 
and all future generations ; therefore I feel it to be my 
duty to publish this much of the original now, notwith- 
standing the severe chastisements that may be inflicted 
upon me. I appeal to Him who knoweth the secrets of 
all hearts, for my sincerity. 

When I say I have no sympathy with secession or rebel- 
lion, I mean just what I say. I hope no one will pass 
sentence upon me until they have heard me through ; then, 
if I am found guilty, I must submit to the penalty. 

I have written a chapter on the causes of the civil 
war in this beloved country, that will, perhaps, surprise 



VI PREFACE. 

the reader more than anything herein published ; when 
he comes to see the mass of evidences I have adduced, 
pointing out the sections, parties, and the very men, 
many will wonder how this great calamity was produced 
without their knowledge of the facts which were all 
around them. That, with thirteen other chapters, I 
intend to publish at a proper time. 

I believe the Christian church could now restore 
peace and union to this entire country, if the Christian 
ministers in all the free States would speedily return to 
their legitimate calling ; for right will beget right, and 
as sure as God reigns in heaven, everything will beget 
its kind. If we want peace we must sow peace ; if we 
want war we must sow war, "for whatever we sow of 
that shall we also reap.' 11 

I had arranged eight of the following chapters in a 
book of twenty-one chapters, which were the 6, 1, 9, 10, 
13, It, 18, 19, therefore they will read somewhat awk- 
wardly, as references are frequently made in those chap- 
ters to authors and chapters I have left to be published 
hereafter, though I altered them so as to chime in the 
best I could. 

My Orthodox and Ilicksite Quaker friends must 
pardon me for the chapter I have written on their con- 
nection with the causes of this bloody civil war, now 
devastating this great and glorious empire. I felt it a 
duty, as I had alluded to them in the first chapter with- 
out fully explaining my views of their character. A 
large part of the book was put in type in my absence 
from the city ; therefore some awkward blunders may 
have occurred in consequence, the book having been 
compiled from the whole manuscript a little hasty. I 
hope Chapter III. will be read by all good men and 
women. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Pictures of Slavery by Noah, Moses, and the other 

Patriarchs 13 



CHAPTER II. 

Pictures of Slavery by St. Paul of the New Testament . $6 
Nature of the Africans, in four letters . . . 131-155 

CHAPTER III. 

The Difference between Slave Negro Labor and Free 
Negro Labor ........ 1G8 

CHAPTER IV. 

-Mixing of blood between the "White and Black Races 

forbid by the Law of Nature and Nature's God . 223 

CHAPTER V. 

Who are Union Men and who are Anti-Union Men ? . 247 

CHAPTER YI. 

What Connection had the Quakers or Friends with the 

Instigators of the War ? 293 

( vii) 



Vlll CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PAGE 

Do as you would be done by 314 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Correspondence between Mrs. Mason, of Virginia, and 

Mrs. Child, of Massachusetts 338 



APPENDIX. 

Ex-Senator Bigler's Letters on the Crittenden Com- 
promise, and Plan for Settlement . . . 374-382 



SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAYERY. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Moral Question of Slavery — Is Negro Slavery as it exists 
in the United States a Moral Evil? 

This question has been discussed in the United 
States, pro and con, for nearly eighty-five years. I 
believe the Quakers were the first, as a Christian 
association, who took the idea that slavery was anti- 
christian. And, if I mistake not, their faith or moral 
notions on the subject was predicated upon a feeling 
that they would not (themselves) like to be slaves 
under negro masters. Therefore, they, as a religious 
society, abolished slavery among themselves in or 
about 1780. But the Orthodox or Foxites, as a reli- 
gious association, has never interfered with other 
people's rights; that' is, they have not united in po- 
litical associations to oppose the institution of slavery 
as a civil institution. They only opposed it among 
themselves as a religious society ; but left other peo- 
ple to do as they pleased. There was a split in the 
Society of Friends in 1827. Led by a certain man 
named Elias Hicks, who came out against the atone- 
ment of our Lord, and declared that his blood was 
2 (13 ) 



14 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

of no more account than that of a bull or ram. He 
diffused his infidelity through the minds of very 
many of that most excellent and influential Christian 
union. All of these, religious, ignorant, aiti scep- 
tical, followed Elias Hicks in his treason and seces- 
sion, and formed another association, and called 
themselves Friends, or Quakers — commonly known 
as Hicksites. This latter organization are generally 
Abolitionists of the Garrisonian school, and have 
formed associations to interfere with the civil and 
moral rights of others, even against constitutional 
laws. They have united with associations to form 
underground railroads, to run off slaves from their 
masters. Through this sham society called Quakers, 
the true Quakers, or Foxites, have been compelled 
to endure much persecution. In all external appear- 
ance, the Quakers and secessionists are similar ; and 
the Orthodox or Foxites have been charged with all 
of their infidelity, for they call themselves the 
Society of Friends. 

But the Hicksite Quakers are not the only class 
of men and women who have interfered with the 
legal institutions of other States. But every infidel 
association that has sprang into existence for the 
last fifty years has seized upon the negro slavery of 
the United States as a great and terrible moral evil. 
Men and women who were guilty of every kind of 
abomination, would seem to look upon the institution 
of negro slavery with horror, on account of the mag- 
nitude of its moral wickedness, and denounce Chris- 
tian slaveholders as thieves, murderers, and robbers, 
and the Christian Church as the centre of all abomi- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 15 

nations, because slaveholders are admitted to their 
communions. Infidelity has assumed every shape 
and form known to skilful invention, through which 
they could bring the slightest influence to bear 
against Christianity. But no shape nor form of 
infidelity has yet been discovered that has answered 
their purposes so well as anti slavery ; therefore, all 
their associations have the antislavery link the most 
prominent. All, all of whom detest the Constitution, 
and the union of the United States. It would be 
impossible to enumerate the shapes and forms infidel- 
ity has taken within the last sixty or seventy years ; 
all of which have been antislavery and antiunion in 
this country. And all the isms invented in New 
England in the last fifty years have placed their 
antislavery and antiunion principles at the head of 
the list. 

Many associations have been formed within the 
borders of the Christian Church who affiliate with 
infidelity in their opposition to negro slavery, and 
in very many cases in their treason against the Con- 
stitution and the union of the United States, whose 
'only object, I believe, has been to overthrow the 
Union. Therefore they have raised the antislavery 
standard above all others, and have such standard, 
bearers as Wendell Phillips, Eev. H. W. Beecher, 
Rev. Dr. Cheever, Eev. Dr. Thompson, Rev. Dr. 
Furness, ¥m. Lloyd Garrison, Gerrett Smith, and 
many others who meet, shake hands, and call each 
other brother ; and all unite with one accord in 
the denunciation of the Constitution and the union 
of the United States. 



16 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

English, infidelity has also denounced the Constitu- 
tion and union of the United States with even greater 
venom than our native infidelity; and in every case 
the pretext has been a morbid sympathy for the poor 
slaves ; all of which is to enlist the malice of man- 
kind against the revealed will of heaven. Those 
demon-begotten spirits have in many instances 
assumed a profession of Christianity, and made their 
way into the Christian ministry, and become great 
sensation preachers in the Church of God, when 
their object was to be only half Christian, and the 
other half infidel, with a double purpose, one to 
destroy the union of States, and the other to get the 
people to support them while they were at it. 

Many of those who have this morbid sympathy 
for the poor slaves, have long since renounced and 
denounced the Bible as an infernal book, simply 
because they could not twist it far enough from the 
truth, to make it condemn slavery. Now, without 
the Bible there is no moral law or guide. It is the 
only constitutional guide of the Christian Church, 
and the only revealed will of God to mankind, or 
that ever will be in this world. Yet these pretenders 
have become so tender on the sinfulness of slavery, 
that they justify and recommend the extermination 
of the whole white population of the slave States, and 
all others who attempt to defend them in their lawful 
rights, that the negro slaves may be freed, and placed 
on a social and civil equality with We, the people! 

I will now undertake to prove from the only 
moral law or guide that ever has or ever will be given 
in this world, that slavery is not a moral evil. The 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 17 

Bible is Jehovah's only revealed wilf to mankind ; 
it contains all we ever have or ever shall have or 
know of the moral law, and he who attempts to 
teach from any other moral law, guide, or doctrines, 
"is a thief or robber." I will'refer the reader to the 
seal, of these truths, that he may be careful how he 
attempts to interfere with God's moral law and 
revealed will to mankind. 

Rev. xxii. 18-19 : " For I testify unto every man that 
heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man 
shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues 
that are written in this book. And if any man shall take 
away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall 
take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy 
city, and from the things which are written in this book." 

I presume no Christian, or even a pretending 
Christian, will attempt to deny that John, while ex- 
iled on the Isle of Patmos, wrote the above awful 
warning to the churches by inspiration. Yet we 
find many who profess to be called of God to preach 
his everlasting Gospel to a fallen world, and have 
been ordained and set apart for that holy and deli- 
cate cause, trying to darken counsel as revealed in 
the book of God, and preaching doctrines not 
revealed in that book, and denying others which are 
as clearly set forth, as that of profane swearing, lying, 
adultery, fornication, or drunkenness, is forbidden, 
and thereby thousands of the most ungodly and 
soul-destroying isms have been produced in the 
world — isms that have destroyed the sanctity of 
churches, ruined families, destroyed nations, and 
damned millions of souls. And none has been 

2* 



18 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

more delusive, deceptive, and destructive to both 
church and state in our beloved country, than the 
doctrine that slavery is a moral evil, or sin against 
God. There is no doctrine more clearly set forth in 
that book than the lawfulness of human slavery, 
except those in the Decalogue, and slavery is even 
set forth in that edict, or in the ten commandments ; 
and the moral question is so clearly revealed, that no 
man who is fit to enter the sacred desk can possibly 
make a mistake, and be ignorant of such mistake on 
the moral question of slavery. Some ministers who 
have been ordained and set apart as expounders of 
God's holy law, for want of Scripture to condemn 
slavery as a moral evil, select passages entirely for- 
eign, and apply them to slavery, such as oppression, 
when it is as clear that the relation of master and 
slave is not meant as it is that the relation of husband 
and wife, or parents and children are not meant. All 
are made precisely the same in morals, so far as the 
book of God teaches on the subject. But infidelity 
having but the one aim, and that is the overthrow 
of Christianity, they, like their great exemplar, the 
devil, are willing to give up this, the greatest boon 
ever bestowed on any nation (our independence) for 
the sake of overthrowing the book of God. 
I will now proceed with my proofs. 

Genesis ix. 20 to 27 inclusive: "And Noah began to be an 
husbandman, and he planted a vineyard. And he drank of 
the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his 
tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness 
of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem 
and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoul- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 19 

ders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their 
father ; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their 
father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and 
knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he 
said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto 
his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of 
Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge 
Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem ; and Canaan 
shall be his servant." 

Here we have. the first introduction of slavery into 
our world, after the flood, at least. Abolitionists say 
that the Bible reading is servant, and not slave, and 
therefore Canaan was only made a hired servant. 
That servant merely meant a hireling, but we are 
told by the best linguists who have ever blessed 
society, that the original meant slave or bondservant, 
and ought to have been so translated. But as the 
word servant is accommodating and will represent a 
hired, or a bondservant, or slave, therefore the word 
servant was used by the translator. But it is too 
clear for cavil, in both the Old and New Testament 
Scriptures, that bondservant and hired servant were 
two distinct conditions of labor, and the former was 
the curse that was put upon Canaan for bad treat- 
ment to his old grandfather while in an unfortunate 
condition. It is said that Noah "planted a vine- 
yard, and he drank of the wine, and was drunken ;" 
it is believed that this was the first wine ever made, 
and Noah not knowing its intoxicating properties 
made himself drunken. It is the only account 
given of his ever being drunk. Some people ask, 
What power there could have been in the words of 
Noah as above quoted, upon Canaan and his pos- 



20 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

terity through all future time? I will answer, that 
what Noah said was merely prophetic, and that it 
was God who imposed the curse upon that unfortu- 
nate race. Therefore slavery is a divine institution, 
which I think I shall make clear to every sincere 
truth seeker. 

Some ask why God should have been so cruel to 
that race of mankind. If I had lived before the 
Supreme Being, and above him, and could have 
looked forward to the end of all things like he did, 
I could, perhaps, tell why he did it ; as it is, I cannot. 
But no doubt it was done for the good of man. I 
will offer a few ideas on this point. Adam disobeyed 
God in one single (and it would seem an almost in- 
nocent) matter ; but yet he was expelled from Eclen, 
he and his entire posterity cursed with a thousand 
times more sickening and terrible curse than was 
Canaan and his posterity. Yet every true man will 
see that Ham's crime was a thousand times more 
flagitious. It is believed by most commentators 
that Ham's son Canaan was with him when he dis- 
covered his old and respected father in such an 
unfortunate condition, and joined him in telling it 
to all they met ; and, perhaps, that while Ham felt 
a deep vindictive contempt towards his old father, 
when he, as a dutiful son, should have pitied the 
good old patriarch, and hastened to have covered 
him from the public gaze, and cautioned his son 
Canaan not to tell it even to his best friend, that his 
father might not be disgraced before the public, and 
that future generations might not feel justified in 
drunkenness, because the old patriarch got drunk 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 21 

through ignorance, he run off and published it to 
his brethren, 

I am asked why Canaan was cursed instead of his 
father Ham ? I will say that, perhaps, if Ham had 
been cursed, all his posterity would have felt the 
weight of the displeasure of Almighty Gocl, and the 
innocent would have suffered for the guilty. The 
whole human family have suffered from the founda- 
tion of the world, because of Adam's disobedience, 
and will suffer through all time, and unless they are 
saved through the atonement of our Lord, they will 
have to suffer through all eternity. The reason for 
believing that Canaan was with his father Ham, 
when he discovered his father Noah lying uncovered 
in his tent, we read from the 22d verse : "And Ham 
the father of Canaan saw," &c. If Canaan was not 
with his father, why should his name have been 
mentioned in that connection? Japheth and Shem 
had sons, no doubt, but no allusion was made to them 
whatever. I cannot see how any sincere truth seeker 
can doubt that idea, when taken in connection with 
the fact that the terrible sentence was passed upon 
Canaan, instead of his father. As I have already 
said, if Ham had been cursed, his whole posterity 
would have been slaves through all time, and that 
would have been unjust. And when we remember 
that God could not do an unjust act, and will not 
punish the innocent, we must believe that Canaan 
had something to do with that great disrespect to 
the old patriarch. 

"And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his 
father and told his two brethren without." 



22 AFRICAX SLAVERY. 

2 2d verse clearly demonstrates the duty of children 
to parents under every circumstance of this life, 
which moral law has never been revoked by any 
decree of heaven. Shem and Japheth had the bless- 
ing of their father bestowed upon them both, 
while Ham was left out in the cold ; without the 
warming influence of his father's blessing to cheer 
his drooping spirits at the grave of his sire. But 
Canaan was thus cursed with the most obnoxious 
judgment of any other physical stain ever inflicted 
upon man since the fall from Eden. A curse that 
is and will be unchangeable this side of the grave. 
No, "no Jewish type or sprinkling priest can ever 
wash the stain away." By the disobedience of Adam 
to his Jieavenly Father, all wickedness, all hardness, 
and all that afflicts the soul, body, or spirit, entered 
into the world, and fell upon the whole human 
family, yea, every unpleasant sensation, and all that 
disturbs union, peace, harmony, and tranquillity; 
even slavery and abolitionism are all, all the conse- 
quences of his disobedience to his Great Sire. Had 
he been obedient he would now live among us in 
all the vigor of youth and beauty that he possessed 
before the fall. So also if Ham and his son Canaan 
had been true to their father and grand-father, there 
would have been no slaves nor negroes in this world 
of ours. 

24th verse says, "Noah awoke from his wine, and 
knew what his younger son had done unto him," 
and pronounced the unchangeable judgment re- 
corded in the 25th verse, which sentence was divine, 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 23 

as I shall show. How "Noah knew what Ham had 
done unto him," we are not informed by the inspired 
penman. Some commentators suppose he was in- 
formed by his two eldest sons. And others suppose 
he knew it by inspiration. How he got the facts, is 
immaterial ; he knew it in some way ; therefore the 
terrible sentence fell upon the right one. Ham was 
not exempt from the effects of ^li vine displeasure, 
nor was any of his family, or their posterity. But 
none was made slaves except Canaan and his de- 
scendants ; " a servant of servants." The reader 
will see that Canaan was not only a servant to his 
brethren, but a servant of their servants. It is, there- 
fore, evident that he was placed far below hired 
servants. Dr. Hales says, " Ham signifies burnt, or 
black." Therefore his name was significant. Ham, 
nor his son was not cursed, because Noah pronounced 
those words against them. But because of the 
magnitude of their crime. The words of Noah 
being prophetic only, therefore what he said had no 
influence whatever upon the physical appearance, or 
character of those culprits, or their posterity. It 
was the just judgment of God for their crime against 
the old patriarch, who was their temporal parent. 
But Shem and Japheth took a garment, and covered 
the nakedness of their father, without looking upon 
him, as every good child would. Therefore a bless- 
ing was pronounced upon them. Now the declara- 
tion of Noah had no influence whatever upon the 
lives and characters of his two elder sons, or their 
posterity, but simply a prophecy, and just as sure as 
the prophecy was fulfilled in the latter, so it has 



2i AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

been in the former, and will continue to be until the 
end of time. 

I do not say that the curse was a spiritual one 
pronounced against Canaan, for it was not; but 
was to affect his civil liberty, and his physical ap- 
pearance, and that of his posterity for ever. None 
of the descendants of Ham had any permanent 
abiding place in tliis world, but were driven about 
at the pleasure of their brethren, the descendants of 
Shem and Japheth. Neither does it appear that 
Canaan was directly enslaved to his brethren ; but 
the process of preparation for bondage was com- 
menced immediately on the pronunciation of the 
sentence for bondage, and went on through succes- 
sive generations until they were completely prepared 
for the yoke. And then to be bond-servants was 
the greatest blessing that man could bestow upon 
them, and is so until this day, and will be so through 
all time to come. This bondage does not interfere 
with their spiritual liberty and salvation through 
the atonement, and no doubt millions of that race 
have embraced it. But that will not alter their 
relations in this world. There seems to be some 
hope for them in the Liberian Colony on the coast 
of Africa. Yet I fear it will prove a failure, though 
the climate is in their favor, as it naturally forbids 
the residence of the whites there, by a prohibitory 
law that is insurmountable, and perhaps unchange- 
able. But when the influence of the Anglo-saxon 
races shall be entirely withdrawn from the colonies, 
the great probability is they will sink into their 
original heathenism and barbarism. They are the 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 25 

only tribes on the earth that can be easily reduced 
to slavery, and who prosper and improve best under 
the yoke of bondage. But I do not wish to dis- 
courage the experiment being fully tried in Liberia, 
for if there is any degree of freedom for them in 
this world, it is there, and only there. 

The Chinese are made slaves in the tropical re- 
gions, or the West India Islands, but two-thirds of 
them die off prematurely. The Cooleys are being 
brought in large numbers and sold into bondage on 
all those Islands for a term of about eight years, 
and perhaps the half of them die off before they 
are free, and those who live the eight years have 
not life enough left in them to enable them to pro- 
cure a livelihood. But the Africans are greatly 
improved by the yoke of bondage in all parts of 
the world, and especially in the sunny climes of the 
torrid zones, and they become vigorous, strong, 
lively, happy, and long lived in the low hot cli- 
mates. While those climates positively forbid con- 
stant labor in the sun by any other tribes or colors 
on the face of the globe, and as it is evident beyond 
all cavil, that the Africans are entirely useless in 
this world in any other capacity but slavery. And 
they are found to be the only persons among all the 
tribes of earth, who can labor constantly and im- 
prove in their moral and physical health by having 
good masters who hold them for life in those climes. 
I say they can toil in those climates without the 
least inconvenience, and with such great benefit to 
themselves, and such vast profit and advantage to 
the whole civilized world. I ask, would it be right 



26 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

under these circumstances for those climates to be 
abandoned that produce such blessings to the world, 
and be forever lost, both in Europe and America, as 
well as in Africa, when they have proved a blessing 
through African slavery, of such magnitude to the 
world, and to none more than the African laborer 
himself. One of the most important points in this 
matter is, to show us that children must be respect- 
ful to their parents in and under all circumstances 
in this life. One of the commandments says, 
" Honor thy father and thy mother ; that thy days 
may be long upon the land which the Lord thy 
God giveth thee." — Ex. xx. 12. Disobedience was 
the crime which produced all the afflictions known 
in this world since its creation, and turned a glorious 
paradise of order and beauty into one perpetual heap 
of corruption, confusion, and ruin. Therefore other 
laws equally strict become necessary for the govern- 
ment of this fallen world ; and the one above stands 
next in importance, and equal to the preceding 
ones of the ten commandments. And Ham and his 
descendants, especially those through the lineage of 
his son Canaan, are marks of the displeasure of the 
Divine Being towards the disobedience of children 
to their parents, and they are this day moving, 
living, hearing, and talking monuments of his dis- 
pleasure towards disobedient children to parents. I 
am asked why I set the Africans down as the de- 
scendants of Ham ? It is evident from history, both 
sacred and profane, that they are the true descend- 
ants of Ham, through Canaan. I refer the reader 
to Drs. Clarke, Benson, Watson, and other divine 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 27 

commentators of the highest standing, and all the 
best authors who have written on the subject. The 
sacred text is too clear to be misunderstood on that 
point. 

26th verse: "And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of 
Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." 27th verse: "God 
shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem ; 
and Canaan shall be his servant." 

These words are so significant that comments are 
unnecessary to prove that slavery was divinely au- 
thorized, so far as Canaan and his posterity were con- 
cerned. He had no part in his father's blessings 
given before his death ; only as an underling or 
subordinate. 

Genesis xvii. 13 : " He that is born in thy house, and he 
that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised." 

This text shows that the buying and selling of 
human beings as chattels was justified by law both 
sacred and civil. This was four hundred and fifty 
years after Noah pronounced the awful sentence 
against Canaan. This shows that Abraham did not 
only hold slaves, but bought them for his own use. 
And the old patriarch expresses no misgivings on 
the subject or moral question of slavery. 

Genesis xx. 14 : " And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, 
and men-servants, and women-servants, and gave them unto 
Abraham." 

Abraham did not hesitate to receive slaves as pre- 
sents at that time, nor at any other time, though pre- 
sented by a heathen as Abimelech was. He expressed 
no conscientious scruples whatever about holding 



28 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

them as property, chattels, whether purchased or pre- 
sented, and yet he held converse with angels. And they 
gave him no intimation that it was an infringement 
on the moral law. If slavery was sin against God or 
man, then angels must have been very remiss in not 
informing the old patriarch, out of whose lineage 
the Son of God was to appear, when he stood alone 
with them in the mountain and in his tent. And 
the patriarch was very humble before the sacred 
visitors, and obedient to a letter ; yet no instruction 
was given him on the sin of slavery. Moses, four 
hundred and six years subsequent to Abraham's 
connection with slavery, held converse with the 
Almighty himself, among the thunderings of the 
mountains, and there received the whole moral law ; 
and in the 17th verse of the xx. of Exodus, we have 
the following : — 

" Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man- 
servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any 
thing that is thy neighbor's." 

In the ten commandments the whole moral law 
was written, and slavery is mentioned, as quoted 
above from 17th verse; and it covers the entire 
moral ground until this day. And it stands in full 
force, for our Lord and his holy apostles brought the 
whole Decalogue forward into the Christian Dispen- 
sation, and reindorsed the whole Decalogue with the 
tenth commandment, as above quoted. And in that 
slavery is completely indorsed and sanctioned. And 
in all that mighty thundering, lightning, and alarm, 
that was to prepare Moses to receive the law, and 
bow obedience to every sacred edict that should be 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 29 

handed over for the government of the world. And 
yet the Supreme Being did not utter one word 
against the institution of slavery. What a pity the 
Kev. H. W. Beecher, Dr. Cheever, Wendell Phillips, 
or some other apostle of universal freedom and equal 
rights, had not been there to have reminded the 
Almighty that his people had enslaved the Canaan- 
ites, and that it was an abomination in his sight, and 
that he must annul the cursed institution ! What 
troubles they would have saved us in the United 
States ! I will refer the reader to Genesis xxiv. the 
latter part of the 2d and the 3d verses, to show you 
that Abraham would not associate with the descen- 
dants of Canaan, because they were an accursed race, 
and Abraham knew it. lie knew also that it would 
be inconsistent with prudence and policy, as well as 
the design of the divine Being, to have united the 
child of promise to one of a cursed race, though that 
curse was only a physical and a political one. 

" Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh ; And I will 
make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God 
of the earth, and thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the 
daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell." The 4th 
verse: "But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my 
kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac." 

Now, why was Abraham so afraid of the Canaan- 
ites ? Shem was an own brother of Ham, the father 
of Canaan. And on what account was he so parti- 
cular as to swear his servant by one of the most 
binding oaths, not to take a wife unto his son Isaac 
from the Canaanites, among whom he was living, 
and who he refused to acknowledge as his kin, but 

3* 



30 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

sent him away into a far country, to a city called 
Nahor, in Mesopotamia, among the descendants of 
Shem, to get a wife for his son ? Because he knew 
the Canaanites were cursed physically and politically, 
and destined for slaves forever. Abraham was a 
slave-owner at this time. It was slaves he sent in 
pursuit of a wife for his son. 

Genesis xvii. 23 : "And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and 
all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with 
lu's money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, 
and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the self-same day, 
as God had said unto him." 

It seems clear that God commanded Abraham 
in this verse to circumcise his slaves (for he had 
bought them with his money), and yet that great and 
eternal Being expresses no dissatisfaction at the 
institution of slavery. The abolitionists say it was 
a different kind of slavery then from what it is now. 
I would like them tell how different, for they were 
bought, sold, and held as chattels just as they are 
now. But they say, they were then white men. I 
have some doubt about that ; and suppose they were, 
is it any worse to hold a negro in slavery than it is 
a white man ? I have not the slightest doubt but 
that all the race was white until after the confusion 
of tongues, at the building of the Tower of Babel, 
which was one hundred and one years after Canaan 
was cursed ; and, until after the dispersion, I have 
little or no doubt that the most of the slaves were 
Canaanites. We see from Genesis xxvi. 25, that 
Isaac was also a slaveholder. Look again at Gen- 
esis xxxii. 22, " And he rose up that night, and took 



AFKICAN SLAVEEY. 31 

his two wives, and his two women-servants." So we 
see that Jacob was a slaveholder also. Pharaoh was 
a large slaveholder, as we see in many places. Ex. 
ix. 20th to 34th verses. They seemed to be put on 
an equality with cattle, as they often were, by even 
the Israelites. The Israelites were all slaves at this 
time, except Moses and Aaron. And how came it 
that such special effort was made to free them from 
bondage, where they had been for so long a time, 
and not the slightest counsel given to free the Ca- 
naanites at any time, or any part of them ? And no 
prophetic vision alludes to any time or place in 
which, or at which time, they are to be free. 

I will here put forth a little prophecy, and I hope 
it will not be forgotten. Whenever the abolition- 
ists shall get sufficient power to amend the Con- 
stitution of the United States, and abolish slavery, 
our glory will end as a prosperous nation, and we 
shall be cursed from that very hour, as the British, 
French, and Spanish provinces were and are, by the 
universal emancipation of their slaves. And not- 
withstanding the mighty and untiring efforts of the 
British missionaries with the Bible and gold, the 
slaves have already sunk quite as low as they are in 
the interior of Africa, and nothing but the sight of 
a standing army prevents them from becoming as 
barbarous as they were in their native territory ; and 
a standing army will have ever to be kept on their 
account. And from the very day they are all freed 
here, the reign of terror will set in, and a military 
despotism will have to be established that will of 



32 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

necessity have to be of greater magnitude than any 
other on the face of the earth. 

Look again at Exodus xxi. 2 : " If thou buy an 
Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve ; and in the 
seventh he shall go out free for nothing." This pas- 
sage is often quoted by antislavery men in great boast, 
because they say it proves that slaves could not 
be held over six years under this law. It is true so 
far as the Hebrew slaves were concerned ; and the 
sacred Legislator is very particular to make this 
special provision for the Hebrews, and doubtless be- 
cause they were the heirs of promise, and had not com- 
mitted an unpardonable national or domestic sin, as 
Canaan had done; nor had they been condemned 
and sentenced to everlasting slavery. 

Ex. xxi. 3 : "If lie came in by himself, he shall go out by 
himself; if he were married, then his wife shall go out with 
him. 

4. If his master have given him a wife, and s-he have borne 
him sons or daughters ; the wife and her children shall be her 
master's and he shall go out by himself. 

5. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, 
my wife, and my children j I will not go out free : 

6. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges ; he shall 
also bring him to the door, or unto the door-post ; and his 
master shall bore his ear through with an awl ; and he shall 
serve him for ever." 

It is clear, from the above passages, that the wife 
given to a Hebrew slave, was a slave for life, and 
also her children, and, of course, she was a Canaan- 
itish woman, or she could not have been held for life. 
If she had not been, she and her children could 
have gone out with the husband and father. And 



AFRICAN" SLAVERY. 33 

if Abraham had allowed his servant to have taken 
a wife to his son Isaac from among the Canaanites, 
his children by her would have at least been like the 
Ishmaelites, and the lineage of Isaac would have 
been a curse to the world the same as the Ishmael- 
ites, instead of being a blessing. And, no doubt, his 
servants, who he sent out to seek a wife for Isaac, 
were all of the heathen around about ; in other words, 
Canaanites. Therefore the necessity for the strong 
oath which was administered to them, and the posi- 
tive charge not to take a wife for Isaac from that 
race, who had been sentenced to perpetual slavery. 
Had these servants not have been Canaanites, there 
would have been no need of such binding oaths. But 
from the above text we learn that a Hebrew slave 
could be held for life by his own consent, and only 
by his own free consent and choice. And when his 
ear was once bored through, according to law, his 
condition was then fixed for life, and he was then a 
bond-servant, and was treated as such, and not as a 
hired servant, as before that act, even if his wife and 
children died the next day. In Lev. xix. 20, we are 
told that if any man have carnal intercourse with a 
bondmaid, who was betrothed, she should be scourged 
but should not be put to death like the Hebrew 
women, because she was not free, and had no power 
to resist ; clearly setting forth that she was not her 
own, and was treated altogether different from the 
Hebrews, for the same crime. Lev. xxii. 10, hired 
servants are spoken of, and we are told in the 11th 
verse, a priest was justified in purchasing slaves with 



34 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

his money, and deal in human beings. Lev. xxv. 
38th to the 55th inclusive. 

These 17 verses ought to settle the whole ques- 
tion, for it is given as the word of the Lord. I will 
give the whole passage for the convenience of the 
reader, and I think it ought to end all cavil among 
Christians. But if it should be twisted to mean 
something else, I think the doctrines of salvation 
by repentance and faith may be twisted into some 
other meaning, and the moral influence of the whole 
book of God will turn to nought. Some professing 
Christians have said to me, if such declarations 
were in the Bible as I stated to them, they would 
dash it from their houses, as an infernal book. I 
pity such professors, but they must suffer the con- 
sequences of their own fanatical prejudices. The 
passage says: — 

" 38. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out 
of the laud of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to 
be your God. 

39. And if thy brother that divelleth by thee be waxen poor, 
and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a 
bond-servant : 

40. But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be 
with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee : 

41. And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his 
children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and 
unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. 

42. For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of 
the land of Egypt : they shall not be sold as bondmen. 

43. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear 
thy God. 

44. Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt 



AFK1CAN SLAVEEY. 35 

have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you, of 
them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. 

45. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do so- 
journ among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families 
that are with you, which they begat in your land : and they 
shall be your possession. 

46. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your chil- 
dren after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be 
your bondmen for ever : but over your brethren, the children 
of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigor. 

47. And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and 
thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself 
unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the 
stranger's family: 

48. After that he is sold he may be redeemed again ; one of 
his brethren may redeem him : 

49. Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or 
any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him, 
or, if he be able, he may redeem himself. 

50. And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the 
year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubilee: and the 
price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years ; 
according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him. 

51. If there be yet many years behind, according unto them 
he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money 
that he was bought for. 

52. And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubi- 
lee, then he shall count with him, and according unto his 
years shall he give him again the price of his redemption. 

53. And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him : and 
the other shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight. 

54. And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall 
go out in the year of jubilee both he, and his children with 
him. 

55. For unto me the children of Israel are servants ; they 
are my servants, whom I brought forth out of Egypt : I am 
the Lord your God." 



36 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

No sincere seeker of the truth will deny that the 
above quotations are the words of the Lord. For 
the 38th says, / am the Lord your God, the 39th to 
the 43d show us that the descendants of Shem cannot 
be made slaves or bond-servants, absolutely, without 
incurring the displeasure of the Supreme Being. 
They are in no way adapted for bond-servants. 
They were not made for slaves, and cannot be en- 
slaved without their own consent, and when they 
were taken and sold on account of their poverty or 
any other cause, the master or purchaser is ordered 
by God himself to treat them as hired servants, and 
they are forbid to rule over them with rigor ; but 
that they should treat them as their brethren, because 
they were of the heirs of promise, and the children of 
Israel, who were their equals in his sight, even if they 
were poor. And if one should by chance fall into 
the hands of a stranger or heathen, in other words, a 
Canaanite, that may be in their midst, every means 
should be used to free him at once if the money 
could be raised for that purpose. His kin are 
called upon to redeem him, but not without paying 
the full cost or amount of purchase to this hea- 
then (I hope the abolitionists will notice this). Al- 
though it seemed to disturb even the Almighty for 
one of his redeemed children to be a slave to one 
who was of the Canaanites, and a cursed race, and 
unlawful for them to hold Israelites as bond-servants 
for any time. Yet the sacred-law giver made it 
imperative that the whole purchase money should be 
returned to this heathen master, after deducting the 
earnings of the Hebrew servants up to the time of 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 37 

his redemption. But in case the money could not 
be raised to redeem him, he was to go out free at 
the jubilee ; which was every fiftieth year. 

There is not a more beautiful lesson in the whole 
moral code. The Almighty does not sanction the 
taking of any man's property from him without 
giving him the value of it. Though it was not law- 
ful for a stranger to hold a Jew in slavery, yet he 
had got him honestly, and the just law of God would 
not allow him to be taken away from his master 
without returning his money to him. (0 abolition- 
ist ! where* wilt thou stand in the great day of God ?) 
These are the laws of God, and any individual, asso- 
ciation, or nation, even in this day of our Lord, will 
be overthrown, who attempts to grapple with them ; 
and any nation that shall sanction the holding of the 
Caucasians, Celts, or Anglo-Saxons in slavery, with- 
out their own free consent and agreement, are 
grappling with the righteous laws of heaven, and 
will ever be in trouble, for the just judgments of the 
Almighty will rest upon them, and a tyrant shall 
reign over them, and uncertainties shall surround 
them day and night ; for the white people are the 
descendants of God's people, whom he brought forth 
out of bondage by a mighty arm. But the holding 
of slaves is fully sanctioned by the Supreme Law- 
giver in the 44th, 45th, and 46th verses. But they 
were to be of the strangers or heathen, who were 
the descendants of Canaan, on whom the terrible 
sentence was pronounced eight hundred and fifty-six 
years before. 

It is evident from God's own words that no part 
4 



38 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

of the sentence had been modified or abated down to 
that day — neither has it been down to this date. 
The difference between a hired and a bond-servant 
is fully set forth in the quotations I have made from 
this chapter. 

This arrangement of God for the government of 
the world is a just one, and woe be unto the church 
or nation that shall attempt to revoke the decrees 
that the great I Am has put his seal to. The Afri- 
cans are the strangers or descendants of the heathen 
that were around about ; they are the Canaanites who 
are useful as slaves only. God has so arranged the 
nature of the Canaanites or Africans, so that there can 
be no mistakes made. The marks are such that they 
cannot be mistaken, day or night ; and the natural laws 
that designate them from the descendants of Shem 
are unchangeable, and God has so made them that 
no mistakes might occur. Therefore, every attempt 
to free them and place them on an equality with the 
people of God, or the whites, must be wilful. And 
whenever it shall be done in this country, woe be 
unto us, for our glory will pass from us as soon as it 
is done ; and every step we take towards that achieve- 
ment is a step towards the complete overthrow of 
this national government, just so sure as God gave 
the above laws. No white race has ever yet taken 
the Africans on an equality who did not sink down 
to their level. 

I shall say enough on the incompetency of the 
African race for self-government in • another chap- 
ter, and their level when left to themselves with the 
power in their hands. In that we can read our doom 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 6\) 

whenever universal emancipation shall prevail in 
this whole country ; and then our steps cannot be 
retraced. The 55th verse seems to seal the law, and 
shows clearly that the whole seventeen verses quoted 
were especially in accordance with divine wisdom. 
There was very special pains taken in this chapter 
to show who was lawfully set apart for bond-servants 
forever, and who were to be their temporal masters, 
without limit; for no time for their freedom is men- 
tioned, or even intimated, nor can be inferred. 

The reasons are again repeated in the last verse 
why the children of Israel should be treated as 
hired servants (when they were unfortunate, and 
fell victims to the law of slavery), and not as slaves. 
And they were, because he (the Lord) had redeemed 
them from perpetual slavery. They (Israel) had 
been made long before the children of promise, and 
whose numbers should be great that they might be 
a blessing to all the nations of the world. But the 
Canaanites had no promise of a temporal redemp- 
tion, neither have they ever been redeemed, nor they 
will not be in this world. And every official effort 
to redeem them, will only make their condition 
worse, for God has set his seal against it, and put 
an irrevocable and a prohibitory mark upon them 
so that they cannot be redeemed ; and if we attempt 
to do it, we shall be sunk far below the level of our 
southern slaves, for the Almighty will not allow us 
to tamper with his laws with impunity. 

In this chapter the line is completely drawn be- 
tween the children of promise and that accursed 
race. Though the service of the Hebrews was some- 



40 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

times long to the jubilee when they happened to be 
made slaves, but their redemption at the jubilee 
was typical of the redemption from the corruptions 
of the fall from Eden ; by the Son of God, which is 
a spiritual redemption, and all who will accept shall 
be made spiritually free, whether bond or free; but 
their temporal relations will not be changed, yet 
both will be greatly improved by it. A heathen 
could not be a type of the promised spiritual re- 
demption by the gift of God's only Son. But they 
are a type of all who shall reject the offer of spiritual 
salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord, whether 
bond or free, black or white, and no more changes 
will be made in this world by divine sanction, and 
jusf so far as we attempt to grapple with the laws 
of nature, and nature's God, we shall be left to our- 
selves, and we shall be cursed just in proportion to 
our interference with the laws of nature. Slavery 
did not then bind a man's soul, and does not uoav. 
A real pious slave ought to be the happiest person 
on earth, for he has no worldly cares to trouble him. 
ISTo matter if he should have a wife and twelve 
children, and be sick, he has no concern about them, 
for he knows, they are fully provided for. And 
they have none of the annoyances or perplexities 
the free people have, of either color. 

Deut. v. 14th: "But the seventh day is the sabbath of the 
Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor 
thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid- 
servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor 
thy stranger that is within thy gates ; that thy man-servant 
and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou." 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 41 

This command was given forty years later to slave- 
holders, and none are so especially mentioned in the 
command or edict as the slaves, showing that the 
master had the same power over them that he had 
over all his beasts of burthen, and it seems that the 
last clause of this article was inserted into the moral 
law for the protection of the slaves, they having no 
natural or lawful rights to protect them from over- 
burden and imposition, and to prevent the welfare 
of the slaves being lost sight of by their owners, 
and woe be unto that master or mistress who shall 
look upon their servants as beasts of burden only, 
especially under gospel dispensation. If they do, 
the Almighty will look upon them as traitors to his 
moral government, and treat them as such in the 
great day of reckoning. They are reminded in the 
15th of the same chapter that they were once slaves 
in Egypt. 

21st. " Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor's wife, neither 
shalt thou covet thy neighbor's house, his field, or his man- 
servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing 
that is thy neighbor's." 

This text differs slightly from the tenth command- 
ment ; in that the field is not mentioned, and this al- 
most complete repetition by the Sacred Laiv-giver 
forty years after writing the Decalogue, shows clearly 
that no change had taken place in his mindon the sub- 
ject of slavery ; and eight hundred and ninety-seven 
years after Canaan had been sentenced to perpetual 
slavery, so far as moral, and civil law, written by 
Moses goes, the moral question of slavery was fully 

4* 



42 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

settled. If there had been some Charles Sumner, 
T. Stevens, H. Beecher, Dr. Furnace, or any one of 
the apostles of abolitionism, to have translated the 
words of the Lord to Moses, amid all that thunder- 
ing and lightning in the mountain, or to have told 
the King of kings that he was committing a great 
and fatal error, what a world of trouble they might 
have saved us if there was any mistake! In the 
14th of the xxi. of Deut. it is strongly inferred that 
the Israelites did buy and sell human slaves as 
chattels, by forbidding a husband to make merchan- 
dise of his own wife, though she was a heathen. 
Deut. xxiii. 15-16 verses, seem to forbid the return 
of a slave to his master ; but must have been under 
some peculiar circumstances ; and the only circum- 
stance under which slaves were forbid to be delivered 
up to their master. And I believe the only passage 
or text we have on record, which in any way forbids 
an unconditional surrender of slaves to their legal 
owner. It is the only one at least quoted by the 
celebrated abolitionist, Mrs. Childs, of Mass., in her 
long letter to Mrs. Senator Mason, of Virginia, pub- 
lished January 7th, 1860, in the Philadelphia Ledger. 
She gave about eighteen passages, only two of which 
had any allusion to slavery, whatever ; and among 
them was this passage, and the precept of our Lord 
in Matthew : " Do as you would be done by." And 
seemed to think she had gained a great victory over 
Mrs. Senator Mason. She was careful not to quote 
any of the many passages so directly to the point. 
Dr. Adam Clarke says in his comment on those two 
verses — 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 43 

" Thou shalt not deliver the servant which is escaped unto 
thee." " That is, a servant who left an idolatrous master that 
he might join himself to God and to his people. In any other 
case, it would have been injustice to have harbored the run- 
away." 

Dr. Adam Clarke was a native of Ireland, and 
never was in this country, and was looked upon 
even by the British government as one of the most 
profound linguists on the earth, and by all as a man 
of mighty powers of mind, and of the deepest piety, 
and was esteemed by all good men in both church 
and state ; and, I think, his opinions ought to be re- 
spected. Though he said, on a passage in the New 
Testament, something like the following : The pains 
of hell are not adequate to the crime of slavery; 
in this declaration he must have alluded to some 
special act of slavery ; perhaps the slave trade that 
was being carried on by the British government at 
that time on an enormous scale; For on all other 
passages he clearly shows that slavery was fully 
justified by both the Old and New Testament Scrip- 
tures. 

The above severe remarks of Dr. Clarke are quoted 
by abolitionists everywhere ; but they are very care- 
ful to quote no other passage from his extended 
commentary on slavery as set forth in the Bible. 
And the same course is pursued about what the 
Eev. John Wesley said on the slave trade, or the 
crimes so often committed in connection with it by 
cruel apd hard-hearted men. Those declarations are 
quoted everywhere by antislavery men and women ; 
but they are very careful never to allude to his 



44 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

having so frequently after that baptized the children 
of slaveholders, and even licensed slaveholders to 
exhort in the church, and admitted them to the 
sacraments in the West Indies, and never after he 
visited the United States of America, and saw for 
himself the condition of master and slave, did he 
utter one- word against receiving slaveholders into 
the Church of God. 

It is evident from the passage above, that the 
escaped slaves were descendants of Shem, though 
this text does not say. But every article in the law 
written prior and subsequent proves beyond a doubt 
that it was Israelites, who perhaps had been taken 
in war by the heathen, and then escaped and returned 
to their brethren. Therefore they were not to be 
delivered up. I think the above quotations ought 
and will satisfy every candid and unprejudiced 
mind, they all being taken from the heads of moral 
departments. I will quote a few more passages, 
however, from the Old Testament, and say some- 
thing about the Ishmaelites, to show that even those 
that mix blood with the Canaanites have never done 
but little or no good in this world ; or, in other 
words, those sections of the globe occupied by them 
exclusively — I mean, wherever they have the govern- 
ment in their own hands. It is clear that the 
African negroes are the true and unadulterated 
descendants of Canaan, and the children of all those 
that intermarried or otherwise mixed kin with them 
are this day to a greater or less extent under the 
curse that was passed upon Canaan four thousand 
two hundred and nine years ago, and perhaps are 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 45 

colored just in proportion to that mixture or kin. 
Benson said : " The Phoenicians and Carthagenians 
are also included in the curse denounced on Canaan, 
for they descended from him, and were both subdued 
by the Greeks and Eomans with dreadful destruction, 
and made tributary to them." This was four hun- 
dred and thirty-six years after the curse was 
denounced on Canaan by his grandfather, Noah, 
and after Abram and Sarai had left Egypt with all 
their property, and the presents given them by 
Pharoah, among which were slaves, and perhaps of 
both sexes, and, no doubt, Hagar was one of them, 
for she was an Egyptian slave, and doubtless a 
Canaanite, for the descendants of Shem and Japheth 
could not be made slaves at pleasure, and especially 
those in the lineage of Shem. As we have here- 
tofore shown, the Egyptian slaves were bond slaves, 
while all others were hired servants, or treated 
as such, and were not held for life, except by mutual 
agreement. 

Genesis xvL 1. "Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no 
children : and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name 
was Hagar." 

So we see she was an Egyptian slave, and at that 
time concubinage was tolerated by both civil and 
moral law. Therefore Sarai would have had a per- 
fect right to have made an agreement with her 
husband to give her an heir by some other woman. 
But in this case she was doubting the promise, and 
even if she had not doubted, she had no right to 
have an heir through a cursed race, and a heathen ; 
and we see as soon as this thing was agreed upon 



46 AFKICAN SLAVERY. 

between Sarai and Abraham, and Hagar bad con- 
ceived, tbat trouble set in between Sarai and Hagar, 
and even between Sarai and Abraham; and the 
consequence was Hagar was driven off, and she fled 
to the wilderness. 

Gen. xvi. 7. "And the angel of the Lord found her by a 
fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way 
to Shur. 

8. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence earnest thou ? 
and whither wilt thou go ? And she said, I flee from the face 
of my mistress Sarai. 

9. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Eeturn to thy 
mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. 

10. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply 
thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multi- 
tude. 

11. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou 
art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name 
Ishmael ; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. 

12. And he will be a wild man ; his hand will be against 
every man, and every man's hand against him ; and he shall 
dwell in the presence of all his brethren.''" 

In the first place we are taught by the angel of 
God in these passages, the right of property in men 
and women as slaves ; see 9th verse. Now was this 
a divine or human law ? If slavery be a sin against 
God, was not this a befitting time to have made it 
known ? Here was a messenger directly from the 
throne of the eternal God; yet he utters not one 
word against the institution of slavery. But tells 
Hagar to return to her mistress, and to submit her- 
self under her hands. The anti-slavery man says 
this was under the old law, when God winked at 
sin. But what law of earth has God and holy 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 47 

angels ever been governed by? This is simply 
preposterous. They say adultery and fornication 
was then allowed as well as slavery — which are 
forbidden under the new law. I will show you when 
I get into the New Testament, that the two former 
are positively forbidden, and slavery allowed, and 
not one word uttered against it in any way. In the 
12th verse the angel told Hagar her child should be 
a wild man, "and his hand should be against every 
man, and every man's hand against him," and that 
he should "dwell in the presence of his brethren. 
It has now been thirty-seven hundred and seventy 
years since the angel talked with HagaF as above ; 
and from thence unto the present day, the descend- 
ants of Ishmael have been against every man, and 
every man has been against them. And what is 
their present condition and their location? "We 
find them now located in a section of county, a 
large territory which stretches from Aleppo to the 
Arabian Sea, and from Egypt to the Persian Gulf; 
containing about one million six hundred and twenty 
thousand square miles, where they have dwelt to- 
gether for thousands of years. God himself has 
sent them out free, because they were kin to the 
children of promise, and therefore could not be 
made slaves of any kind, either bond or hired. 
They are divided into twelve tribes and are circum- 
cised, and marry among themselves same as the 
Jews. They are loose from all political restraint. 
The wilderness is their habitation, and in a land 
where no other human beings can live, they have 
their homes, but no fixed habitations. They com- 



48 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

mit depredations on all the cities and towns near 
their borders. They, are universally thieves, rob- 
bers, and murderers; after committing their depre- 
dation, they can retire into the desert with such 
precipitancy that they cannot be caught. Their 
fleetness is almost equal to the gray hound. The 
Abyssinians, Persians, Egyptians, and Turks have 
endeavored to subjugate those Bedouin Arabs, and 
sometimes they have thought they were going to 
have full success, but ultimately all was abortive. 
And from the beginning to the present day they 
have maintained their independence; and they re- 
main as living and moving monuments of the truth 
of the Holy Scriptures, and of the disapprobation 
of God to any mixture of blood with the descendant 
of Canaan. All, because Ham made fun of his 
father Noah, while prostrated in his tent beneath a 
misfortune. 

I shall speak of the mulattoes of this country in 
another chapter, and show you that the curse of 
God is still upon any mixture between the true de- 
scendants of Shem, and those of Ham through the 
lineage of Canaan. I hope the reader will examine 
the xvi. chapter of Gen., and read Clarke's views 
on it. What use have those wild Arabs been to the 
world ? Where have they done any good ? What 
nation, or tribe, or spot, on this earth has been in 
any way benefited by them ? None, whatever. Yet 
they are descendants of Abraham, as well as the 
Jews; but, unfortunately, through a Canaanitish 
woman and a cursed slave. The only benefit the 
Arabs have been, or perhaps ever will be, is as a 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 49 

warning to all men not to interfere with divine 
decrees, and the arrangements of his government 
by which he intended to govern the world. Abra- 
ham was severely pnnished by the trouble he 
was thrown into with Sarai — through her slave 
Hagar. The pure descendants of Canaan are very 
useful to the whole world as slaves, but in no other 
capacity. And slavery is as great a blessing to the 
African in the United States as Christianity is to a 
heathen, and is so in their native Africa, though to 
a much less extent, and altogether in a temporal 
way. And whenever we, as a nation, which God 
has chosen as his agents and guardians to take care 
of a part of those descendants of Ham, and to make 
them useful to him in the world, and to teach them 
Christianity and the way of life here and hereafter, 
shall set them all at liberty, his curse will be upon 
us from that day in which it shall be done, and we 
shall feel the weight of his hand until the end of 
time, in some way that will destroy our peace and 
happiness, as a nation and people ; and this country 
and nation that was intended to be as the ante- cham- 
ber of heaven, will be thrown into confusion, tu- 
mults and ruin. As I have said much on this point 
in another place, I will now only ask what would 
become of us, if four or five millions more slaves 
were turned loose upon us, and what would become 
of them ? 

There was a striking difference between hired 

servants and bond servants. To oppress the former 

was positively forbidden, even if they were poor and 

needy. See Deut. xxiv. 14, 15. And they were 

5 



50 AFKICAN SLAVERY. 

reminded that they were bond-servants in Egypt, 
see 18th verse, as a warning to them against their 
withholding the pay from hired servants, and there- 
by oppressing them. The descendants of Shem, 
though often made slaves through poverty and 
otherwise, so far as the law required obedience to 
the master, was the same as bond-servants, and so 
far as remaining their time out ; but they were to 
receive wages in some way, and were to be treated 
as hired servants who went and came at pleasure ; 
but were just as much bound to serve their time out, 
whatever that was, as the bond-servants were to 
serve for life : and* live on such as his master saw 
proper to give him. In the beginning, while under 
a provisional government, the descendants of Shem 
or Japheth, were only allowed to serve six years, and 
go out free on the seventh, as typical of the Sabbath. 
But under the permanent government, as established 
by Moses, the time was extended to fifty years ; that 
is, they were all set free at the jubilee which was 
every fiftieth year ; that making the whole time of 
service for those who should happen to enter on the 
first day after the jubilee, forty-nine years ; and those 
entering one year after, would have to serve forty- 
eight years ; and those entering on the forty-eighth 
year, would have to serve only one year to the first 
morning of the year of jubilee, when all the children 
of promise went out free. Lev. xxv. 52, 53, 54, 65. 
Now the reason why they were not to be held for- 
ever as bond or hired servants is clearly set forth in 
the 55th verse. But what is said of the strangers 
that sojourned among them ? Lev. xxv. 45, 46. Who 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. . 51 

were meant by strangers ? Were they not heathens, 
or in other words, the descendants of Ham through 
Canaan ? How different were they treated ! They 
were to be bought, sold and kept for an inheritance 
for their children, and to be held as their possessions 
forever — to be at the beck and call of their masters, 
and no intimations given that they were ever to 
be free, and satisfy themselves on whatever their 
owners gave them, and had no legal claim on them 
for anything beyond that. 

A wealthy gentleman, in whose breast beats as 
kind a heart as ever moved the pulse of man, said 
to me last night, while talking on this subject, 
in reply to my views, that I must not talk that way ; 
that he could not bear it, for it would be cruel; that 
God was no respecter of persons. I said to the 
doctor, Why, then, are they black and so repulsive 
in their appearance to all our senses ? therefore 
God must have been a respecter of persons, so far as 
the physical nature of man is concerned. And he 
does respect man according to his obedience to his 
government, and has done from the foundation of 
the world, and will do to the end of time. Spiritual- 
ly, in a general way, he is no respecter of persons, 
and has opened up a way for the salvation of every 
man, without respect to color or condition. A great 
many men do not seem to draw the line between the 
spiritual and temporal kingdom of God in the world. 
If he was no respecter of persons, how came Noah 
and his family to have been admitted into the ark 
and saved, and all others left out to perish ? How 
came Lot and his family to be taken out of Sodom 



52 . AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

by an angel of God, and all the Sodomites left to 
perish in the flames? How came David to be 
. chosen and anointed, and Jonathan left out ? And 
how came the Africans to be what they are in 
color and personal appearance, and the Anglo-Saxon 
so superior in color and personal appearance ? To 
say God is no respecter of persons, physically and 
temporally, is preposterous. I know he sends the 
rain on the good and bad alike, that the bad may 
have no excuse ; and all are invited alike to partake 
of the waters of life, and all can have it alike, without 
respect to color, tribe, or nation ; and if the Hindoo, 
Chinese, Indian, Arab, African, or southern slave 
will come unto God through Jesus Christ, and give 
him their hearts alike, he will free them all alike 
from the dominion of sin, and they will be free 
indeed ; and if faithful, the devil and sin will have 
no more dominion over them. But it will make no 
difference in their temporal or physical relations 
whatever, only so far as they may be improved in 
principle and grace. But it will make no change in 
the color of the skin, the texture of the hair, or the 
odor of the body. 

Thousands of abolitionists speak of the spiritual 
freedom of the Bible, and twist it into a temporal 
freedom, and thus preach it from their pulpits, with 
long, aped faces, and by that try to make the people 
believe that they have a large store of pity for the 
poor slave, that is ten times as happy and well off 
as two-thirds of our white servant-girls in the 
northern cities ; and no sympathy is expressed for 
them whatever. Thus they have adulterated the 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 53 

Gospel of God, and converted the sanctuary into a 
den of corruption, deception, and slander. Many 
such are ministers of Apollyon, and not of Christ, and 
are guilty of high treason against the government 
of God and this country, and deserve the gallows just 
as much as old John Brown or any other culprit. 
And we shall never have peace in church or state 
until they are hung or stopped in some way. "Was 
it any worse for God to curse the Canaanites with 
perpetual slavery for a sin of such enormity, than 
it was to curse the whole world, simply because 
our first parents bit a very delicious fruit in the 
Garden of Eden? Ham (and no doubt his son 
Canaan joined with him, or he would not have been 
selected to take the curse) saw his father lying drunk 
and naked in his tent, and doubtless the first and 
last time it ever happened, and instead of Covering 
him, and trying to hide his shame from the gaze of 
the ungodly, ran off and told his brethren, as before 
described. Every good man will agree that this was 
a great sin, and would have been, even if Noah had 
been a stranger to him ; and by this curse only a 
small part of the human family were stained, and 
not punished with corporeal punishment. But was 
the curse that took hold upon Adam and the whole 
human family simply because he ate the fruit ? No ; 
certainly not. 

Suppose the stress was laid on the mere act of 
the two, which was the worst? I would say that 
Ham's was a thousand times more flagitious than 
Adam's. In Adam's case there was no harm in 
simply eating the apple, but in Ham's case there 

5* 



54 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

was a flagitiousness that excelled most all other 
crimes. Yet, for it, the descendants of one branch 
of his family were made slaves forever. But what 
was, and is, the immensity of the curse that affected 
the whole world, without respect to persons? not 
only to man, but the beast of the field, the fowls of 
the air, the fish of the sea, and the earth, and all 
that grows thereon. The seasons, the winds, the 
seas, and even the atmosphere was poisonous; all 
fell under this most terrible curse. The extra curse 
added to Canaan and his family was not a drop to 
the ocean, compared to it. The descendants of Ca- 
naan was not corrupted any more than what they 
were before, by the disobedience of Adam. They 
were gradually turned black, and made slaves. But 
by the transgression of Adam, Ham committed this 
great sin; the whole antediluvian world was de- 
stroyed, and every pain that afflicts man, beast, 
fowl, or fish, was produced by it. There would 
have been no winter, no storms, no burning sun, 
but one perpetual serene and balmy spring. Had 
it not been for the sin of Adam, there would have 
been no slaves, labor would not have been toil, 
there would have been no thorns or thistles, no 
venomous reptiles, no unclean thing, or contending 
parties, no misunderstanding, no fevers, no agues, 
no pains of any kind, no wars, nor rumors of wars, 
and above all, no death would ever have been known 
in the whole family of earth, and the presence of 
Almighty God would have been the perpetual 
glory of man. But Adam disobeyed God by eating 
the fruit he was told not to; therefore God has 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 55 

expressed his great displeasure to disobedience by 
letting this terrible calamity in upon us. 

This curse is an eternal one, it reaches beyond 
this world, and to all eternity, unless we obey the 
commandments. The special sin of Ham does not, 
but only reaches to the grave, there it ends. There- 
fore it is only temporal and physical, and of such 
small moment that no special or separate atonement 
has been made for its extirpation in this world ; no 
amendments has been made to the decree that 
brought it about; it not being necessary for the 
salvation of the slaves, they hold the same relation 
to God, the white man does. Jesus Christ died to 
atone for all mankind ; but does that screen us from 
the curse that fell upon us (by the fall) in this world ? 
It does not, though we may embrace the benefits of 
the atonements, but we shall still have all the bodily 
afflictions that come into the world by the sin of 
Adam, and the last one to the Christian will be 
death, and eternal damnation after death to the 
disobedient and ungodly. 

This life became a probation by the fall, and the 
slave is included in this probation, with the master ; 
here we all bear the same relation, and all are invit- 
ed to embrace Christ, without any respect or refer- 
ence to our temporal relations. It matters not 
whether we are masters, bond-servants, or hired 
servants, we may all be free in Christ Jesus. And 
God has never called man into his work of the 
ministry to interfere with those relations between 
master and slave ; if he has, he is inconsistent with 
himself; for he nowhere has taught us any such 



56 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

doctrines, either in the Old or New Testament. 
Then who has called all those men to the pulpit to 
preach doctrines in direct opposition to the inspired 
word of God? If God himself has done it, he has 
either changed or he did not inspire the writers of 
the Bible, and the anti-slavery party gospel preach- 
ers declare it to "be inspired, and go into pulpits and 
declare slavery to be a sin against God. If that be 
so, God is the author, and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, 
Job, and David, were all sinners unto death, and St. 
Paul was a great sinner, and we have no account of 
his repentance; for he encouraged the relation of 
master and slave throughout his entire ministry, 
and should have repented. If he did, it was not put 
on record for our instruction. Then I ask again 
who called the anti-slavery gospel preachers into the 
pulpit to proclaim against the government of the 
United States, and the decrees of the eternal God ? 
But the anti-slavery man says that was a decree of 
an old drunken man in his dotage. If that was so, 
how came the class of men against whom the decree 
was made, to be so affected by it, that their skins 
turned black, and their hair like black curled 
bristles? Old Noah's declaration did not amount to 
anything towards affecting the thing decreed ; it was 
only prophetic ; God saw the crime of Ham, and de- 
termined to place a warning in the world, against a 
repetition. And he only, had the power to make the 
effect follow the cause. Noah had no more power 
to produce such a thing than he had to create a 
world. Therefore slavery is a divine institution. 
Then, did God call men and women into the ministry 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 57- 

to preach an antislavery gospel ? I say lie did not, 
nor conld not, without inconsistency, if the Scriptures 
be true. Then who did call them ? None but the 
Prince of darkness — that same devil who said unto 
Eve. Thou shalt not surely die. This fiend of dark- 
ness determined to make war against God, and 
prevent the righteousness of man, if possible, and he 
has seized upon everything that he could appro- 
priate to his use for that purpose ; and as soon as 
God saw fit to take hold of the poor down-trodden 
African under the heel of debauchery, and bring him 
into usefulness for their immediate good, and the 
benefit and glory of all mankind, and as soon as the 
all-wise" Governor of the universe chose his own 
plan, and began to introduce them into usefulness 
among his Christian people, Apollyon commenced 
his attack upon the institution that was ordained of 
God for the good of his people ; but never until the 
year 1620, when it was introduced into countries 
where he saw Christianity would be promulgated, 
and the poor down-trodden African would be Chris- 
tianized through the instrumentality of slavery. 
These Canaanites had been used as slaves and as 
beasts of burthen for over four thousand years, and 
we have no account of any opposition being made 
to it. 

As long as it existed among heathens, the Prince 
of darkness was too cunning to make an attack upon 
it, in the time of the inspired writers, especially those 
of the ISTew Testament, for it might have been the 
means of bringing out some strong declarations that 
might have been recorded. He wanted it for some 



58 AFRICAN SLAVERY, 

future use, and perhaps feared the apostles would 
frustrate all his designs, by warning masters and 
slaves to be on the lookout for him. The enemy of 
God and man knows well that circumstances make 
the slave question more exciting than any other. 
And he and his numerous followers, who are found 
mingling in all Christian congregations and pulpits, 
know that it is their only scheme by which they can 
break up this glorious and God-like government. If 
the Scriptures of truth had forbidden the existence 
of negro slavery, no doubt, those preachers and the 
devil would have taken a strong stand for slavery, 
and would have endeavored to establish it in every 
part of this country. They are opposed to God and 
righteousness ; therefore their opposition to slavery. 
I have no doubt but the Prince of darkness was 
opposed to this planet's being peopled at the time 
we understand to be the creation of the world. It 
might have been created many millions of years ago, 
and perhaps was one of the brightest stars in the 
whole constellation of the heavens ; and perhaps the 
devil was the chief ruling angel, under the great 
central Power, and, it may be, he had millions of 
angels under him who might have acted as messen- 
gers to other planets, and to the great Creator of 
them all. And it may be that this ruling angel and 
great central power of this planet concluded to set 
up for himself, and made it known to all his contri- 
butories, and called them around him to secede from 
the great constellation of heaven (just as the Gover- 
nor of South Carolina did last week, with his host 
of rebels, and withdrew from this great constellation 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 59 

of States) ; and, perhaps the very moment the bill 
passed, this planet was banished into outer darkness, 
far outside of all moral or optic light, and this 
glorious star was instantly reduced to a chaotic state, 
and all its inhabitants (who agreed to the ordinance) 
into devils, Apollyon being king. And it may have 
floated about in outer darkness in a state of chaos for 
millions of years. But at a set time it returned from 
a state of darkness to its place, a heap of ruins, with- 
out a speck of light or glory. And at the time of 
creation, God let in the light upon it from other 
planets, on which it is still dependent for light; God 
took it through a process of preparation for six days, 
and put it into a beautiful shape, no doubt ; and 
when done, God blessed it, and pronounced it good, and 
then created a new set of beings, perhaps somewhat 
different in nature from those before the rebellion and 
attempted secession (and for which presumption the 
sudden transmigration from angels of light to devils 
took place), to dress, cultivate, and beautify it. But 
it being the dwelling place of this enemy of God and 
the Prince of secession, he assailed our first parents, 
and seduced them from their purity ; and therefore 
all the corruptions of this poor fallen world. 

I have no doubt this planet shone as bright and 
trinkled as much as any other heavenly body. JSTow 
it is clear that the Prince of Hell had no access to 
the hearts of our first parents, as he now has to us, 
for he was compelled to employ another who could 
speak in audible words, and in a beautiful and en- 
ticing manner. And no doubt it was some animal 
that was admired by Eve, and he persuaded her to 



60 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

taste the fruit.. She found it sweet, and gave to Adam, 
and induced him to taste. From that moment the 
devil has had access to the hearts of every living 
creature ; and there is no power that can resist him 
but the power of the spirit of Almighty God. I 
know this is not all Bible doctrine, for some of it is 
a mere speculation of my own, and therefore can- 
not be relied on, only so far as it is sustained by the 
Bible. But any part of it is as clearly taught in the 
Bible, and as much to be relied upon as the doctrine 
of the ' immorality of slavery as taught by modern 
abolition gospel preachers, and fully as reasonable 
as it is that African slavery as it exists in the United 
States of North America is in the abstract sinful, 
and all such preachers are at variance with the 
decrees of the eternal God, and are endeavoring to 
set at nought his plan of civilization and evangeliz- 
ing this world of sin. But notwithstanding their 
efforts under the direction of their father, the devil, 
whom they serve, this planet will be redeemed by 
the grace of God, through the preaching of the 
gospel of Christ (and not abolition), from the subju- 
gation of the devil, and all the kingdoms of the 
world will become the kingdoms of God and his 
Christ. And the time will come when Apollyon 
with all his motley crew and abolition preachers, 
will be swept from this planet over which he has 
ruled so long, and with such tyranny and hatred 
into outer darkness, where there will be weeping; 
wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Where is outer 
darkness? I suppose it is outside, and away 
beyond all the planets, fixed stars, and systems, 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 61 

where the light of heaven will never strike their 
optical vision, and the powers of restraining grace 
will never be heard of, much less felt, to all eternity. 
I have long believed that according to the attri- 
butes of Jehovah, no spirit can be destroyed, bad or 
good, but will exist somewhere for even, . yea, forever and 
ever, and as this planet could not be at rest as long 
as it is his habitation, at a fixed time in the mind 
of God they will be arraigned before the court of 
heaven, with all his followers and disobedient, 
whether human or fallen angels, all false teachers, 
or pretended gospel preachers, who have added 
doctrines not written in the word of God, and 
preached them as very truth, or extracted therefrom 
what is really written, in order to give it a different 
meaning, whether on slavery or any other question, 
even of minor importance, will be found guilty of 
rebellion and treason. All such "will be banished 
from the presence of Him who sitteth upon the 
throne, and from the glory of his power," into outer 
darkness. There can be no darkness within the 
Kingdom of God after this planet is redeemed. 
Therefore "outer darkness" must be outside of the 
everlasting range of the government of God, where 
the softening sounds and melting appeals of "come 
unto me, and be saved," will never be heard, but 
they will be beyond the reach of all good, even 
beyond the power of God to save. I will add 
another class to Apollyon's kingdom, and they are 
those who are everlastingly interfering with a good 
government like ours, and finding fault with what is 
done by authority, and never take one step to try to 
6 



62 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

cure the evils they complain of, and see everybody's 
wrongs except their own, finding fault with their 
own church and state, as though everybody in it 
was bad except themselves, in both ecclesiastical and 
civil administrations. If there should be any place 
in God's domains for any such, it will be on the 
borders, where it may only be a little unpleasant. 
I will compare another principle of abolitionism 
with divine law. 

Deut. xxii. 1. " Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his 
sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt iu 
any case bring them again unto thy brother. 

2. And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou 
know him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, 
and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and 
thou shalt restore it to him again. 

3. In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so shalt 
thou do with his raiment ; and with all lost things of thy 
brother's, which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou 
do likewise: thou mayest not hide thyself." 

The first verse teaches us that it is our duty to 
take care of our neighbor's property if we see it 
wasting, or inform him where it is, that he may 
regain it. The 2d teaches us that if the owner 
should be far away, and an entire stranger, then we 
shall take his property to our own house, and keep 
it until he comes for it, and restore it to him. The 
3d verse teaches us that we are to do the same thing 
with any property or anything that belongs to our 
neighbor or a stranger. The text says, "all lost 
things of thy brother's which he hath lost." Now was 
slaves not a possession, or, in other words, property, 
according to both the civil and moral law ? I sup- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 63 

pose no one will pretend to say they were not. 
Then they were included in " all lost things." Some 
people will see their neighbor's property destroyed 
under their feet and make no effort to save it, 
neither will they inform him of the fact. But 
abolitionists go m.uch further than that, for they 
hide their neighbor's property that he may lose it, 
and they endeavor to get it away from him, that he 
may not find it. Yes, they even box up slaves, in 
order to steal them from their owners, that they 
may lose them. One good brother told me he had 
seventeen slaves hid in his garret at a time, that the 
anti-slavery party had run off from their masters, 
all of which they conducted on to Canada, into a cold 
climate not suited to their nature. This villainous 
practice has been and still is carried on by many 
northern men and women and pretended preachers 
of the gospel from nearly every denomination of 
professing Christians. Now, I ask again, by what 
spirit are. those men guided? Can it be the righte- 
ous and benevolent spirit that inspired the writing 
of these three verses? I think every candid man 
will say no. Then of what spirit are they? There 
is but two that can inspire men's hearts, to- do bad 
or good ; one is of God and the other of the devil. 
Am I wrong in saying they are of the devil ? I 
will say I am right, or those verses of Scripture are 
wrong. 

I am told by some that this was under the Mo- 
saic dispensation, and that the Christian era brought 
up a new state of things. I think I shall be able to 



64 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

show you that the only change made in the relation 
of masters and slaves, was, the Apostles taught the 
slaves that they must be obedient to their masters, 
for in so doing they served God. Some say 
there was no such thing as the return of fugitive 
slaves to their masters in those days. That there 
were no slave catchers and that they were not to be 
delivered up if they were sought after. This is 
like many other things said by anti-slavery gospel 
preachers. 

I. Kings ii. 39. " And it came to pass, at the'cnd of three 
years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away unto 
Achish son of Maachah, king of Gath: and they told Shimei, 
saying, Behold, thy servants he in Gath. 

40. And Shimei arose, and saddled his ass, and went to 
Gath, to Achish, to seek his servants : and Shimei went, and 
brought his servants from Gath." 

Here we see the law fully carried out, for 
"Shimei" was informed (as taught in Deut. xxii. 
and first three verses) of the whereabouts of his 
slaves. And he went for them and no one attempted 
to interfere with his rights to those two slaves, and 
they were delivered up to him, and he brought 
them to his home. Now if the anti-slavery gospel 
preacher will show me one word that condemns 
" Sliimei," or those who informed him, in the whole 
revelation of God, I will give up that slavery 
is a sin. I could give many other passages 
from the Old Testament to show that slavery was 
nn institution formed under the providence of 
Almighty God. But I think I have given enough 



• AFRICAN SLAVERY. . 65 

to satisfy every believer in the inspired word of God, 
and will now close this chapter by saying that it is 
as clear to my mind that slavery is the work of 
Eternal wisdom, and to help make np the machinery 
by which God will civilize and evangelize this fallen 
and sin-stricken world. 



CHAPTER II. 

FREEDOM AND SLAVERY. 

Does the Gospel Dispensation condemn the relation of Master 
and Slave? 

The main part of this chapter was written in the 
fall of 1860, as an article for the New York Metho- 
dist, but was rejected by the editor for reasons given 
at the latter end of the chapter, in the correspond- 
ence between the Rev. Mr. Crooks and myself, and 
was written before the fifth chapter; therefore, I 
shall leave out most of the quotations from the Old 
Testament, and the comments thereon, with the 
introductory remarks made to that paper. The first 
account we have of the institution of slavery was 
established two thousand three hundred and forty- 
eight years before Christ, by Divine decree and 
acknowledgment, as I think I clearly proved in the 
previous chapter by quotations from the Old Testa- 
ment ; and I now propose to show from the New 
Testament that slavery was not abolished under the 
Gospel Dispensation, nor condemned by Christ or 
any of his apostles, or their disciples. That every 
passage on the subject in the latter endorses the 
institution, if it docs not directly sanction it. 
( 66 ) 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 67 

I will say before I enter into the argument, that I 
am a friend of the negroes, and every principle in 
me is in favor of freedom and the general good of 
all mankind. And I desire the happiness of the 
negro race as much as I do any other race or tribe 
on the earth. My opposition to emancipation is not 
from a principle of opposition to the freedom of the 
black race, but because I know they are not capable 
of self-government, and consequently better off in 
slavery. And I believe a free republican constitu- 
tional government and union could not exist ten 
years with one-sixth part of the entire population of 
the country black African negroes, and the other 
five-sixth pure Anglo-Saxons, and that a national 
military despotism would have to be established for 
their government, for two reasons. 

First. To prevent their extermination by the white 
people; for the colored race would push in for a 
social and political equality, and then we should 
have a scene of blood such as has never been on the 
globe; therefore a military government would be 
necessary to prevent the greatest act of barbarism 
on which the sun ever shone. And under such a 
government there would be infinite danger of "we, 
the people" being reduced to a social and political 
equality with them,, against which equality I now 
enter my everlasting protest. 

Secondly. If neither of the above evils should take 
place, and they should be allowed to remain with 
us in peace, they would become entirely useless, and 
sink down into the lowest degradation and ruin, as 
they have done in South America, Mexico, and the 



68 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

British West Indies, where they have never been of 
any use to themselves, or any body else, since their 
emancipation. On these grounds, I am personally 
opposed to the emancipation of any more slaves in 
the United States, and I believe it would be a far 
greater deed of charity to the poor unfortunate free 
persons of color in this country, to reduce the nine- 
tenths of them to slavery, than it would be to set the 
slaves all free. Therefore, even without the clearest 
teachings of the book of God, I am opposed to the 
emancipation of the slaves in this country, for the 
good of both races, especially that of the negroes. 
And, when we come to the moral law, the emancipa- 
tion of the negro race is so clearly forbidden, that I 
dare not advocate their freedom ; for in that, I be- 
lieve, I should be acting against the clearest teachings 
of Divine inspiration ; consequently, I should afflict 
my conscience by doing different from what I now 
do on the slave question. If I were entirely selfish, 
and cared nothing for my country, my God, or future 
generations, I should have taken another course ; for 
I had no doubt, four months before the Presidential 
election, that all other parties would be enormously 
in the minority to the republican party. I was well 
satisfied before the election, what the result would 
be in case that party succeeded, as I am now of what 
has taken place. And I had feared from the elec- 
tion of 1856, that the Eepublican 'party would suc- 
ceed in 1860, and that we should have a collision 
with our southern brethren, and perhaps an eternal 
overthrow of this great and glorious Union would 
be the result — which Union was my greatest earthly 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 69 

admiration, while, I believe, its overthrow would be 
my earthly ruin — that with its end ended all my 
earthly hopes ; and I felt that if I had had a thousand 
lives, I would have given them all rather than the 
abolitionists should have got the reins of the national 
government in their hands, for I knew what they' 
intended to do; and I as firmly believed that the 
result would be a total breaking up of the business 
of the whole country, which I declared to almost all 
I talked with. 

Under these circumstances, I knew my safest plan 
would be, to secure my bread (while we should be 
undergoing the greatest revolution yet known to the 
world), to go in with the republican party, for I knew 
none who opposed them, and stood up for the union 
on the only ground that there was any possibility of 
its being saved, would have any patronage under the 
government. But I loved this great and glorious 
government too well to advocate what I believed 
would be its everlasting overthrow ; and it was so 
strange to me that every body else did not see it 
just as I did, that I almost lost all confidence in the 
capabilities of man for self-government. A Christian 
brother said to me the other day, on Market Street, 
that he would like to see me hung up by the neck 
to the nearest lamp-post, and there hang until I rot- 
ted, because I believe coercion, or an attempt to force 
the seven States back that have now seceded, would 
destroy all hope for a restoration of peace and union. 
I firmly believe the seven States can be brought back 
by peace measures. But coercion will drive several 
others out, and perhaps throw us into universal 



70 . AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

anarchy. Therefore, I can not, under these circum- 
stances, advocate coercive measures. Could I do it, 
I should be far better off than I am, so far as my 
present bread and meat is concerned; but I love 
peace and the union of the whole United States too 
well to raise my puny arm against them, by advocating 
coercive measures. I solemnly declare the above to 
be my clearest and most positive convictions, gather- 
ed from the teachings of our Saviour and his holy 
apostles, and the clearest reasoning from a long study 
of the history of the rise and fall of nations and of 
human nature. I have placed several pages of the 
forepart of this chapter, as it was originally written 
for the Methodist, in the forepart of the first chapter. 
I will now proceed with my argument on the 
question of slavery, as set forth in the New Testa- 
ment. Modern abolitionists tell us that slavery has 
been the cause of a vast amount of evil, therefore it 
should be abolished. I say slavery has not pro- 
duced any of the evils we have had or now have in 
our country. Neither did it produce or cause the 
John Brown Eaid in Virginia ; nor has it produced 
the ill feeling now existing between the two ex- 
tremes of our' great and glorious country. But the 
opposition to slavery has done all the mischief. 
No advent since the world was, has been surrounded 
with more evils than the advent of our Lord and Sa- 
viour Jesus Christ. It has been made the occasion of 
the shedding of more blood, perhaps, than has been 
shed by any king or potentate who has lived since 
his advent into the world. Now, tell me, was our 
Lord the cause of all the evils which have followed 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 71 

Iris appearance to redeem a fallen world, or was the 
trouble produced by an opposition to bis mission 
among men. I say he was just as much the cause 
of all those evils, as slavery has been the cause of 
the John Brown Eaid in Virginia. And if slavery 
was the cause of all the trouble that has surrounded 
or seemed to hang around it, then our Lord must 
have been the cause of all the wickedness which fol- 
lowed Christianity. 

Now it is clear that the evils which have followed 
the one, has been produced by the same spirit of 
wickedness that followed the other. Then if we 
abolish the one, because of the wickedness that was 
brought out by the opposition to it, through infi- 
delity and wicked men, then we certainly ought 
to abolish Christianity as well as slavery. But who 
will venture to say that Christianity ought to be 
abolished, because bad men and infidelity hate it, 
and use every kind of wickedness to drive it (if pos- 
sible) from the world ? If the people of the United 
States was to make a decree, that Christianity should 
be driven out of the country, because its opponents 
make trouble, and howl, and fight, would you justify 
such a decree ? I think no man would do so foolish 
a thing. Marriage is one of the most honorable 
institutions ever known in the world, and one of the 
greatest blessings ever bestowed upon mankind. Yet, 
the most enormous evils has come out of it, perhaps 
of any other blessing that was ordained unto us by 
heaven. Now I ask every sincere man and woman 
if marriage was the cause of the wickedness that 
seemed to grow out of it ? or was it in consequence 



72 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

of the wickedness of bad men? Now must mar- 
riage be abolished simply because enormous evils 
are practiced upon the ceremony, and bad men whip 
their wives, and often murder them ? 

There is a large class of people in the United 
States opposed to marriages, who are divided into 
several classes, one called the Shaking Quakers, who 
are otherwise a moral industrious people. Another 
large class of religious fanatics, who formerly called 
themselves the Battle Axe Christians. And still 
another class who openly avow infidelity. Those 
classes are much larger now than the Garri'sonian 
Abolitionists were in 1840. All of those fanatics de- 
nounce the marriage tie, as the " sum of all villain- 
ies," and declare it to be more righteous to put a cat 
and dog in a bag together, than it is to marry a man 
to a woman. These fanatics have formed associations 
all over the free States (and are on the increase), in 
order to abolish the marriage contract. And give 
as their reason, that it is slavery of one to the other, 
and therefore should be abolished from among men. 

Now according to the doctrine of all who say 
that slavery must be abolished because a set of men 
who have no direct interest in the institution, nor 
have they the most distant right, either civil or 
moral, to interfere with it in our Southern States, 
the marriage contract should be abolished simply 
because those religious fanatics protest against it 
and say it is a sin, or moral evil. They have just 
as good a right, and good deal better, for the mar- 
1 contract exists in the States in which they live. 
But slavery does not exist in any of the States in 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 73 

which its opponents live, therefore the opponents of 
marriage have a better right to claim the arm of the 
government to aid them to prevent the evils that 
follow the marriage ceremony, by sweeping it from 
our land. I could name almost every good institu- 
tion in our country, and show that it is surrounded 
with great evils. Therefore should be abolished, 
according to abolition notions of the evils of slavery. 
I have written the above in the place of the pages 
transferred to the previous chapter, and as an an- 
swer to thousands of our most excellent men, who 
say that slavery should be abolished, because a cer- 
tain class of men and women in the free States say 
it is a moral evil, and produces great tumults, harass 
parties and Legislatures, because the poor African 
negroes are in slavery, and "we, the people," are 
not. When this class of abolition zealots are mainly 
made up of men who never saw a slave in slavery, 
and who have no more right to interfere with it than 
they have to interfere with the serfs of Eussia, or 
the dark shades on the face of the moon ; and yet 
these good men, who are among our best citizens, 
say slavery must be abolished if, by so doing, we are 
compelled to exterminate the entire white population 
of the slave States, and say it would be preferable to 
having those abolition fanatics everlastingly stirring 
up strife and treason here in the free States, and 
keeping us ever in dread and fear that some terrible 
judgment will befall us, or that we may be com- 
pelled to put down servile insurrections in the South. 
Now is not this most wicked ? Could old Apollyon 
take a more unrighteous course — to go to work and 
7 



74 AFEICAN SLAVERY. 

rob the slave States of $4,000,000,000 worth of pro- 
perty, and turn five millions of persons loose to starve 
and die, or prowl about in a state of the lowest degra- 
dation, and be a pest to society? What for? Why, 
because a set of infidels in our midst, who hate God 
and all who love him, and who make it their busi- 
ness to disturb all peaceful relations between men 
who have the good of all mankind in view. I wish 
I had a talent to set this point before the reader that 
he might see it in its right and true shape. To rob 
the innocent, righteous, and unoffendiDg, to satisfy a 
set of traitors like Wendell Phillips, Charles- Sum- 
ner, and Wm. L. Garrison, and their thousands of 
dupes, is an enormity of crime of such magnitude, 
that I shudder when I think of a sin-avenging God ; 
for woe be unto us when we insult His Majesty with 
impunity. 

Is slavery a moral evil according to the teachings 
of the New Testament, and did Christ or any of his 
apostles condemn it, or did they endorse and justify 
it? I say they did both endorse and justify it in all 
its legitimate forms. When the government of 
the United States was adopted, and the Union there- 
by secured, twelve States out of the thirteen were 
slave States. We then had universal peace and har- 
mony from centre to circumference of the thirteen 
States. The slave clause in the Constitution was 
adopted by a very large majority, and also the ex- 
tension of the slave trade for twenty years, passed by 
a large majority; though there was a powerful 
opposition made to the latter by Luther Martin, of 
Md., and one or two others. The whole country 



AFPJCAN SLAVERY. 75 

prospered from that day. The blessings of a kind 
Providence rested upon the whole nation, and the 
people loved each other, and knew no North nor no 
South, and church and state prospered alike. The 
state looked to the church for moral and religious 
example, and the church looked to the state for the 
civil protection she might need. And the blessings 
of an all-merciful Father seemed to rest upon all 
alike, and we were the happiest nation on whom the 
sun ever shone. There was a small fragment in 
the Northern States who commenced an opposition to 
the government some three or four years after it was 
formed, and, in a very few years, infidelity brought 
every kind of "ism 11 to bear against both church 
and state; but as long as both rejected that 
form of infidelity called abolition, they done us no 
harm. 

For many years abolitionists could not even get a 
nomination for any office in the nation, much less be 
elected to one. Churches interrogated candidates for 
the ministry on the question, and if they were found 
to be abolitionists, they were rejected, though in all 
other points unobjectionable. The New York Con- 
ference rejected two candidates in (about) 1840 to 
1842, simply because they were suspected of being 
tainted with abolitionism, when they were in all 
other points unobjectionable. As long as this was 
strictly attended to, the church and state prospered 
unmolested, though abolitionism and infidelity howled 
against both. Yet both prospered in spite of all the 
schemes of infidelity and the devil, through their 
agents, fm. Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and 



76 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

their sub-agents, Charles Sumner, Henry Ward 
Beecher, Drs. Cheever, Furness, and others. But as 
long as those sehernes of the devil and abolitionists 
were openly avowed against church and state, their 
darts fell harmless at our feet. But they finally took 
it into their heads to change their mode from candor 
to deception, and by so doing, they got possession of 
a large part of the church, and a strong hold in the 
state. And as soon as the church and state give way 
for the sake of their votes, and yielded, trouble set in, 
and danger was perceptible. It was not long after 
this before churches began to quarrel and divide, and 
statesmen who had always loved each other, became 
the bitterest enemies, and soon began to be sectional 
in their feelings and speeches, and in a very few 
years churches elected the most ultra abolitionists to 
conduct their journals. They (the churches) having 
taken the first steps for a dissolution of the Union. 

There was not the slightest danger to church or 
state apparent, when the votes of those devils in- 
carnate was first sought for. As soon as that con- 
cession was made, the blessing of prosperity, peace, 
harmony, and love began to fade away. Just in pro- 
portion to the encouragement given to this class of 
infidelity by the church and state, just in that ratio 
both have been retarded in their peace and pros- 
perity. 

In about 1842 many thousand seceded from the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in New England, 
because slaveholders were allowed to commune in 
the southern branch of the church, whose leaders 
were Scott, Sunderland & Co. It would not be hard 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 77 

to prove that those leaders were bad men before 
they left the church, and perhaps joined it for the 
very purpose of trying to split and ruin it. Yery 
soon after they withdrew, the most of the leaders 
went to ruin (I mean the preachers), for some of them 
took to hard drink, and others to fortune telliog, 
some to Spiritualism, and others to Animal Magnet- 
ism, Millerism, Mor monism, and every other kind 
of ism ; all this because they had become so holy 
and pure that they could no longer remain in a 
communion that slaveholders were admitted to, 
though a thousand miles from them. Notwithstand- 
ing their great conscientious scruples about slavery, 
they went headlong into all those blackening inven- 
tions of the devil for a livelihood, which I think is 
as near Apollyon's Kingdom as can be reached in 
this world. So the leaders mostly exposed their 
cloven feet before they died. 

What became of the twenty thousand laymen, 
I am asked, that followed them ? I know not, but 
it is to be feared they went about the same road. 
It is only necessary for us to look at the prosperous 
condition of the whole nation as well as the church 
before abolitionism became popular in them, and 
look at them since it succeeded to power, to know 
what spirit they are of. Look at our condition now, 
since abolitionism got the ascendency. Look at the 
divisions, the tumults, the hard words, the curses, 
and see the blood that has been shed, and the scaf- 
folds that have been erected to hang men and women 
from, and assassinations in almost every form. See 
the ruin to business of every grade, and perhaps 

7* 



78 AFRICAN" SLAVERY. 

five hundred million dollars would not pay the loss 
produced by the opposition to slavery in this coun- 
try. There is not an infidel association that I know 
of who are not abolitionist, and who declare the 
Bible to be an infernal book, because it endorses or 
sanctions slavery. And they seize upon the slave 
question to strengthen their opposition to the Chris- 
tian religion. And now the strong and bitter feelings 
between the North and the South, that no doubt will 
result in a clash of arms, and perhaps will be one of 
the greatest civil strifes ever known on the face of 
the earth, and perhaps the slaughter of millions 
of our race, and ultimately the total extermination 
of the entire black population of this whole country, 
or the driving of them from among us, who have 
had no hand in making this trouble. Those of tjiat 
race who have the name of freedom are in the great- 
est danger. It is not necessary to go into details, 
for every man and woman of the slightest observa- 
tion ought to know the history, and see the catastro- 
phy just before us, and unless God in his mercy 
shall interfere in behalf of "We, the people" we shall 
be dashed to pieces as a nation upon the rocks of 
a universal despotism or anarchy that will make us 
quail with fear and pain. 

I joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1827. 
At that time the slave and free States were a unit in 
church as well as state; with the exception of a 
handful of abolitionists in the free States, there was 
no sectional quarrels, all was love, peace, harmony, 
and union, between the two extremes of our beloved 
country. And so it would be now had no concessions 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 79 

ever been made to infidelity through Garrisonian 
abolitionism. This class of infidelity had gained so 
fast after its admission into official stations in the 
church, that in the General Conference of 1844, 
Bishop Andrews, of Georgia, one of the most 
respected, and devoted bishops of our (then) great 
and powerful Christian Church, was suspended, 
simply for having married a lady who had fell heir, 
or by will, to some two or three little negro chil- 
dren. "What has been the result of that fatal act of 
that most unfortunate conference is now before us, 
and all can realize it. It was the first step for a 
dissolution of this great and glorious union. That 
step divided this great body of Christians nearly on 
the geographical line, called Mason's and Dixon's. 
The following year, our Baptist brethren, the next 
most powerful church, followed the example set by 
our church, dividing about on the same line as her 
leaders did. Some time subsequent the New School 
Presbyterian separated on about the same line. 
While other congregational churches who had no 
general form of church government have not ceased 
to say hard things of our Southern brethren because 
they allowed slaveholders in their communions, and 
have done great service in the fatal cause of destruc- 
tion to the last, and perhaps the only hope of man 
for liberty and self-government. 

The Old School Presbyterian Church has now 
virtually divided, and the only ligament which has 
not been officially severed, is the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church, which is now our only hope for liberty 
and union. If that fails we are without hope in 



80 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

this country. These churches have not only divided, 
but are being subdivided, and all brotherly inter- 
course between members of the same church seems 
to be lost sight of, while they denounce each other 
like fiends, one asserting that the negro is as good 
as the white man and ought to be made his equal, 
and others dissenting. Ministers seem to have en- 
tirely forgotten the sword of the Spirit given them 
by their Great Progenitor, who told them to use it, 
and no other, which is love to God and to all man- 
kind. And they have now unsheathed a sword of 
steel, or the temporal sword, and go into pulpits and 
recommend it to all their members. No prayers 
are allowed to be offered for our sectional enemies, 
no love to be tendered them which was the only 
spirit and foundation of the union. But Sharp's 
rifles, cannon balls, and the temporal sword contains 
all the gospel of love they seem to recommend to 
those we have first made mad. How sweet it would 
be to. find a communion where none but the sword 
of the Spirit of the living God was used. I well 
remember when we had such communions; but not 
since abolitionists were admitted, and called brothers. 
Then our peace, union, and love, among our Christian 
brethren was unmitigated. Bat alas! how is it to- 
day ? How do we now greet each other ? With 
curses, denunciations, and threats. What has done ' 
all of this mischief? Opposition to God's own 
arrangement for the government of the world. But 
wo be unto us, if we lift our arm against his de- 
crees. 

This rebellion has already produced animosities 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 81 

between brethren who loved each other with Chris- 
tian forbearance, that is painful. But we have reason 
.to fear that all our happy and peaceful days as a 
nation and church are past forever. One of our 
most popular young preachers, preached a sermon 
the other Sunday morning, in one of our popular 
churches, against slavery, that produced disputes, 
quarrels, and bad feelings which may never be 
erased in this life. Thousands have left the church 
in consequence of the agitation of negro slavery in 
them, and perhaps will be forever lost to the church ; 
and it is to be feared they will lose their preparation 
for the Kingdom above. It is to be feared also, that 
many ministers and laymen have committed blas- 
phemy against the Throne of heaven; especially 
since old John Brown and his co-associates were 
executed at Charlestown, Va. Ministers of the Gos- 
pel have proclaimed from the sacred desk, that 
{that old murderer and traitor) John Brown was the 
second Jesus Christ; others, that the gallows was 
sanctified and made precious as the cross of our Sa- 
viour by his execution thereon ; and others have 
said the horrors of the gallows were entirely re- 
moved, and now it was a desirable death to die. At 
similar declarations made in this city, at one of our 
large halls, it is said, by good men, that some lay- 
men and ministers responded with a solemn and 
hearty amen. They were ministers who draw very 
large crowds to hear them preach treason to the 
laws of heaven and earth. These are the true and 
certain effects of ministerial religious and political 
opposition to lawful negro slavery. 



82 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

If I were to attempt to enumerate all the evils 
growing out of the opposition to African slavery in 
this country, it would make a very large book ; and 
none have suffered more than the poor slaves them- 
selves. There are evils growing out of the system of 
slavery, I know ; but is that any evidence that the 
system is a moral evil ? If it is, then every good thing 
we have, or ever had, is a moral evil — even Chris- 
tianity, as I have already shown, for the devil has 
never ceased to try to bring all the bad out of good he 
could. And will any one undertake to say that he 
has not succeeded to an alarming extent ? Yet, not- 
withstanding all the combined efforts of infidelity and 
the devil, had it not been for the offer and free gift 
.of Christianity, we should now be in a far worse con- 
dition than the natives of Africa ever were. And 
we are indebted to Christianity for all the benefits 
we ever had, whether civil or moral. And all the 
civilization that has been since the world was, was 
the legitimate result of Christianity. Yet infidelity 
and abolitionists say Christianity must be abolished, 
because evils have resulted from its advent. Many 
leading antislavery men have dashed the Bible from 
their tables because it sanctions slavery. 

If slavery be a moral evil, it ought to be abolished, 
provided it can be done without producing a greater 
one. But is slavery a moral evil ? If so, it was en- 
dorsed by all the actors and inspired writers of the 
Holy Bible, from Noah to St. Paul, the Son of God 
not excepted. The evidence of this I have already 
given from the Mosaic dispensation in the previous 
chapter. But I will refer again to Exodus xx. 17. 



AFJJICAN SLAVERY. 83 

" Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou 
shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-ser- 
vant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, 
nor anything that is thy neighbor's." If property 
in men and women is not recognized in this, the tenth 
commandment, and fully sanctioned by the inspired 
penman, then houses nor cattle cannot be claimed as 
property, and man has no moral claim to anything 
he possesses, and he is sinning against light by not dis- 
charging it. Let us look at and examine it until we 
fully understand it, for an awful responsibility rests 
upon us ; for upon our decision may rest our liber- 
ties, our peace, and happiness through all time to 
come. After we have thoroughly^ investigated it, 
and find slavery to be a moral evil, then we must 
blot out the Decalogue or ten commandments,- or 
charge the Supreme Being with the authorship of a 
moral evil. Slavery may be looked upon as a 
greater missionary movement to evangelize the 
heathen than all the missionary movements of the 
Christian churches. Let no man forbid the holding 
of slaves until he can prove by holy writ that slavery 
is a sin against the moral law ; fear lest he should 
oppose one of the great divine schemes of evangel- 
ization. Abraham, the friend of God, and the father 
of the faithful, a great and good man, was command- 
ed by the eternal to " circumcise the servants born 
in his house, and bought with his money." Genesis 
xvii. 13. Yet in all this there is not the slightest 
command or intimation given against the institution 
of slavery, or that it was a moral evil, or in anyway 
displeasing to the Almighty. 



8-4 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

There are many other passages in the Old Testa- 
ment, and a great many in the New, that fully 
endorse the holding of men and woman as property 
(of a particular race), but no others, except for crime, 
or by their own free consent. The Eoman centurian, 
whose faith Jesus commended as follows : " I have 
not found so great faith, no, not in Israel," Matt. viii. 
5-13, was a large slaveholder. Yet bis faitb was 
commended by our Lord, as being superior to any 
he bad found. But not one word uttered against 
that institution (or that it was a moral evil), or in 
any way displeasing to God, much less to the centu- 
rian being the master of so many slaves, who were 
accredited to him as his own property. The Eoman 
law invested tbe master with power of life and deatb 
over bis servants. And the fact that tbe centurian 
held slaves under this law, did not in the least, in 
the estimation of Jesus of Nazareth, render him 
unworthy of the high commendation bestowed on 
bim by Christ, and recorded for our instruction. If 
slavery is a sin, then our Lord neglected bis duty in 
this case, and thereby became accessory to the crime. 
He could so easily have said to him that be was a 
sinner by owning slaves, instead of bestowing so 
higb a commendation upon him. And it was sucb 
a fit time for him to have warned others against this 
(alleged) crime, by telling bim that no slaveholder 
should enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But not one 
word of the Icind. 

As the sons of Adam are bound to submit patiently 
to the decree that binds them to earn their living by 
the sweat of their brows, so also must the sons of 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 85 

Ham, through his son Canaan, submit to their fate. 
The wise and benevolent friends of the African race 
may learn from the prophetical curse passed by 
Noah, that slavery is a part of the mysterious plan, 
according to which God is governing the world, and 
they should be careful for fear they should be found 
opposing God. 

The Scriptures furnish yet another, and even a 
stronger argument for the lawfulness of slavery. 
In the fact that they instruct masters how to exer- 
cise authority over their slaves. 

Eph. vi. 5. " Servants, be obedient to them that are your 
masters according to th>e flesh, with fear and trembling, in 
singleness of your heart, as unto Christ. 

6. Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but as the servants 
of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart ; 

7. With good-will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to 
men; 

8. Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the 
same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. 

9. And ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbear- 
ing threatening : knowing that your Master also is in heaven ; 
neither is there respect of persons with him." 

If the relation of master and slave be unlawful 
and sinful, then the relation of parents and children 
must be the same, for both are exhorted alike to 
obedience. Except Paul said more to slaves, know- 
ing there was more danger of their being neglectful 
of their duty to masters, and the danger of masters 
forgetting their duty to slaves, and to impress the 
minds of the slaves so deeply, that they might not 
think they had the right to waste their time which 
8 



86 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

belonged exclusively to their masters, and not to 
themselves, and that they should love and respect 
them. 

If slavery be a moral evil, why was Paul so 
particular in insisting upon those duties to each 
other, without giving the slightest intimation that 
slavery was wrong, or in any way objectionable to 
Christianity? But St. Paul seemed to make so 
much greater effort to impress his precept upon the 
minds of the slaves, than any others he named in 
those verses; there must have been some special 
reasons for it. Does it not look as though he had 
his prophetic eye cast forward to the present times ? 
Those precepts stand in as full force to-day as they 
did when he uttered them. I am told by the anti- 
slavery party, that Paul was speaking to servants, 
and not to slaves. I have shown already in a former 
chapter that whenever the hired servants were 
spoken of, they were speaking of Israelites, and 
not Canaanites, and whether they were bought for 
a term of years or for life, their master had the 
same unconditional control over them. But what 
does Paul mean in the latter clause of the 8th verse 
when he says, "whether they be bond or free?" 
Are not two distinct classes of servants alluded to ? 
Who does he mean by bond-servants ? I hope the 
reader will examine Webster, Walker, Baily, Eeid, 
or any other lexicographer known in the world, on 
the word bond-servant, bond-slave, bond-man, and 
bond-maid. And then ask yourself the question, 
why all the inspired writers were so particular in 
designating between a hired servant and a bond- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 87 

servant. Was it not to instruct us that the relation 
of master and slave was lawful in the sight of God ? 

A gentleman said to me this morning, that servant 
always meant a hireling. I refer him, and all others 
who thus believe, to the quotations from Lev. xxv. 
if Webster and all lexicographers fail to satisfy 
them. For to argue such a question would look too 
simple for even children to cavil over. The text 
needs no comment. 

Gol. iii. 18. "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own hus- 
bands, as it is fit in the Lord. 

19. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against 
them. 

20. Children, obey your parents in all things : for this is well 
pleasing unto the Lord. 

21. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they 
be discouraged. 

22. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to 
the flesh ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers ; but in sin- 
gleness of heart, fearing God : 

23. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and 
not unto men." 

Col. iv. 1. " Masters, give unto your servants that which is 
just and equal ; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." 

This is nearly a repetition of the Epistle to the 
Eph. And therefore adds more strongly to the 
testimony that slavery was, to say the least of it, 
as just a judgment upon the descendants of Ham 
as the afflictions of the whole human family are for 
Adam's transgression. If the relation of master 
and slave be a moral evil, St. Paul could not have 
been an inspired Apostle. For he treats the rela- 
tion of master and slave, husband and wife, parents 
and children, precisely the same, except as I said 



88 AFKICAN SLAVEEY. 

before, lie was far more impressive in his injunctions 
to slaves. If tliey were not equally lawful in the 
sight of God, Paul's name ought to "be stricken from 
the New Testament, and not stand as an inspired 
Apostle. But as I can see nothing criminal or sin- 
ful in the decree under Noah, I shall still look up 
to the Apostle Paul as God's greatest ambassador 
and favored friend, and believe I am just as much 
forbid to interfere with the relation of master and 
slave, as husband and wife. 

I hope every master will read the first verse of 
the iv. of. Col. with special attention, for it was 
written for him. He must not oppress his slaves 
with harshness and bitterness. Their earnings be- 
long to him, for which he is bound by this precept 
to give them enough good wholesome food, com- 
fortable clothing, and not to put more on them than 
they can comfortably bear. In short, he must do 
to them as he would have them do to him, if cir- 
cumstances between them were completely reversed. 
They are held responsible to the moral law, and 
if they neglect their duty in this thing, God will 
judge them in justice and truth. 

But the 22-23d verses of the iii. chapter rivets 
the slave's duty to his master so particularly, that it 
cannot be misunderstood or misapplied. While 
the masters are reminded that they have a Master in 
heaven who will render them their just reward for 
their conduct to their slaves, the servants are 
commanded in all tilings to obey their masters, and 
told that they must do it as unto God, "not with eye- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 89 

service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, 
fearing God." 

If slavery be a moral evil, St. Paul was a bad man, 
and endeavored to deceive the people. But if the 
Scriptures be the word of God, and written by in- 
spiration, then slavery is as much a divine institu- 
tion as labor and the cultivation of the soil of the 
earth. For Noah said, " Cursed be Canaan, a ser- 
vant of servants shall he be to his brethren." God 
said to Adam, " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou 
eat bread, till thou return unto the ground," &c. 
The decree against Adam was pronounced by the 
great "I Am" and has been executed to the strictest 
letter, upon all his descendants without one excep- 
tion ; and no one can deny it. Noah was the grand 
patriarch under God, and the commander-in-chief of 
the whole human family, who held so near a place 
to the heart of the great "I Am" that he was selected 
to pass from the antediluvian to the postdiluvian 
world, and was made builder and then commander of 
the mighty ark, which was planned by God himself. 
He delivered the decree in the case of his grandson 
Canaan with the same authority (doubtless) that he 
erected and commanded the great ark until it rested 
upon the summit of Mount Ararat. And woe be 
unto that man, party, or nation, who shall set at 
nought those decrees, by trampling upon the wisdom 
of heaven, for he knows what is best. 

I will refer to 1 Tim. vi. — 

1. " Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their 
own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and 
his doctrine be not blasphemed. 

8* 



88 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

before, lie was far more impressive in his injunctions 
to slaves. If they were not equally lawful in the 
sight of God, Paul's name ought to be stricken from 
the New Testament, and not stand as an inspired 
Apostle. But as I can see nothing criminal or sin- 
ful in the decree under Noah, I shall still look up 
to the Apostle Paul as God's greatest ambassador 
and favored friend, and believe I am just as much 
forbid to interfere with the relation of master and 
slave, as husband and wife. 

I hope every master will read the first verse of 
the iv. of. Col. with special attention, for it was 
written for him. He must not oppress his slaves 
with harshness and bitterness. Their earnings be- 
long to him, for which he is bound by this precept 
to give them enough good wholesome food, com- 
fortable clothing, and not to put more on them than 
they can comfortably bear. In short, he must do 
to them as he would have them do to him, if cir- 
cumstances between them were completely reversed. 
They are held responsible to the moral law, and 
if they neglect their duty in this thing, God will 
judge them in justice and truth. 

But the 22-23d verses of the iii. chapter rivets 
the slave's duty to his master so particularly, that it 
cannot be misunderstood or misapplied. While 
the masters are reminded that they have a Master in 
heaven who will render them their just reward for 
their conduct to their slaves, the servants are 
commanded in all tilings to obey their masters, and 
told that they must do it as unto God, "not with eye- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 89 

service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, 
fearing God." 

If slavery be a moral evil, St. Panl was a bad man, 
and endeavored to deceive the people. But if the 
Scriptures be the word of God, and written by in- 
spiration, then slavery is as much a divine institu- 
tion as labor and the cultivation of the soil of the 
earth. For Noah said, " Cursed be Canaan, a ser- 
vant of servants shall he be to his brethren." God 
said to Adam, " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou 
eat bread, till thou return unto the ground," &o. 
The decree against Adam was pronounced by the 
great "I Am" and has been executed to the strictest 
letter, upon all his descendants without one excep- 
tion ; and no one can deny it. Noah was the grand 
patriarch under God, and the commander-in-chief of 
the whole human family, who held so near a place 
to the heart of the great "I Am" that he was selected 
to pass from the antediluvian to the postdiluvian 
world, and was made builder and then commander of 
the mighty ark, which was planned by God himself. 
He delivered the decree in the case of his grandson 
Canaan with the same authority (doubtless) that he 
erected and commanded the great ark until it rested 
upon the summit of Mount Ararat. And woe be 
unto that man, party, or nation, who shall set at 
nought those decrees, by trampling upon the wisdom 
of heaven, for he knows what is best. 

I will refer to 1 Tim. vi. — 

1. " Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their 
own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and 
his doctrine be not blasphemed. 

8* 



92 AFEICAN SLAVERY. 

thing else, and consequently have made up their 
minds from what some infidel preacher of a gospel, 
like the Eev. Henry Ward Beecher, Dr. Cheever, 
Dr. Furness, or Wendell Phillips, has said on the 
subject to them, and from their own natural feelings. 
They believe these great preachers are honest ; they 
have not once thought that they are the very class 
of men prophesied of, or alluded to, in the 3d, 4th, 
and 5th verses above quoted ; just read the 1st and 
2d verses with marked attention, and then read the 
3d, 4th, and 5th, with the same attention, and see 
how clear and positively they point to those preach- 
ers, and all such who pretend to believe as they do. 
They may be given over to " believe a lie, that they 
may be damned. 1 ' Yet it is hard for me to believe 
that they are so well off as that. I hope the reader 
will examine Dr. Adam Clarke on those verses, and 
see how clearly he points out those hypocrites above 
named, and all such. Those pretenders denounce 
Paul's exhortation or precept, and make him out a 
hypocrite and a deceiver of the people like them- 
selves, and every slave owner or master as a thief, 
murderer, and robber, right in the teeth of Paul's 
teaching. man, who art thou, that thou shouldest 
resist God and denounce his own plans for evangel- 
izing the world ? Paul's teachings are, that all such 
preachers 

11 Are proud, knowing" nothing-, but doting- about questions 
and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil 
surmisings, perverse disputing^ of men of corrupt minds, and 
destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from 
such withdraw thyself." 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 93 

In the above verses, St. Paul was not only an 
apostle, but an inspired prophet, and I think the 
present circumstances in the United States is enough 
to convince any infidel in this country that the Apos- 
tle Paul was an inspired writer, therefore we are 
bound as professing Christians to obey his precepts. 
I quote those passages for those who embrace the 
Scriptures as the inspired word of God. I know 
there is no use to quote Scripture to a professed 
infidel, for it would only be casting pearl before 
swine, and the worst kind of swine! For if there 
is anything that is hateful on this earth, and that 
ought to stink in the nostrils of all good men, it is 
the man who mocks at the word of God, and de- 
nounces it as a book of lies ; yet there is a class of 
men who are even worse than the infidel. They 
are those who profess to believe the Scriptures to 
be the inspired truth of God, and are even ordained 
preachers of the gospel, who are popular speakers 
and who draw large congregations, and then preach 
doctrines to them that completely nullifies the laws 
of Moses, and the Spirit, and letter of the Gospel 
of God our Saviour, as taught by St. Paul. Some 
preachers of the gospel of all denominations go 
high up into pulpits, and tell the Christian slave- 
holder that he is a thief, a murderer, and robber, 
and exhort the slave to leave his master, to steal 
his horse, or his money, that he may make sure his 
escape. Yes, if his master, or any one else, attempts to 
impede his flight, to kill him. Now I ask, in the 
name of God and all his holy angels, prophets, and 
apostles, is this right ? even if we leave St. Paul's 



94 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

doctrines of the Gospel of God our Saviour, out of 
the question, would it be right in the name of 
reason and common sense for preachers of the 
gospel to encourage the running off of slaves from 
their masters, and leave the poor creatures in the 
most terrible state of degradation, ruin, filth, and 
suffering, among strangers who have no respect for 
them ; in the name of truth is it right ? How much 
more God-like was the preaching of St. Paul, in his 
letter to Timothy, than these hellish doctrines, that 
will sooner or later turn this glorious government into 
universal anarchy, and saturate its fertile soil with 
human blood. 

O how I hate the man who scorns at the word of 
God ! But I hate that man still more who pretends 
to believe the Bible to be the word of God, and 
takes upon himself the authority to preach the truths 
of the everlasting Gospel, and go into his pulpit and 
annul a large portion of it by recommending Sharp's 
rifles as being the best Gospel for slaveholders, and 
encouraging murder, robbery, and theft. Who and 
what has brought us to such a crisis ? Antislavery 
preachers. Has God prepared any place for such 
preachers in the kingdom of Glory ? If lie has, I 
don't know who will not be there. Old Apollyon will 
not be far off. How does Henry Ward Beecher's 
Sharp rifle sermon compare with St. Paul's letter to 
Timothy on the subject of slaves and slaveholders? 
St. Paul says : — 

" Let as many servants as are under the yoke, count their 
own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his 
doctrine may be not blasphemed." 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 95 

What could the apostle have said that would have 
been more convincing and inviting to all candid 
persons than the above? How much more God- 
like than Beecher's sermon, or the whole antislaver y 
doctrine ! After the above remarks of the apostle, 
which were spoken to all servants and masters, with- 
out respect to their moral standing, he then alludes 
particularly to believing masters, and declares them 
to be brethren. Therefore, a more special obedience 
to them seemed to be enjoined. But the antislaver -y 
gospel preachers say, the slaveholders are " thieves, 
murderers, and robbers, and ought to be shot down 
like sheep-killing dogs," " or smashed like mosqui- 
toes." What could be invented by the devil better 
calculated to raise the standard of infidelity in all 
parts of the world, and reduce the Scriptures of truth 
to be looked upon as heathen fables? "But rather 
do them service, because they are faithful and be- 
loved partakers of the benefit. These things teach 
and exhort." 

It is evident from these precepts that there were 
abolitionists in those days, or the apostle had the 
nineteenth century in full view when he wrote that 
epistle, or he would not have said so much on the sub- 
ject in so many places. He declares that there were 
believing masters who were faithful, and beloved 
partakers of the truths of the Gospel. Therefore he 
enjoins this as a greater reason why their servants 
should obey them, and that the Church should 
respect them. But the antislavery preachers have 
used every means to expel all slaveholders from all 
the communions of the different Christian churches, 



VQ AFRICAN" SLAVERY. 

and declare them unworthy of respect right in the 
face of the apostle's exhortation and doctrines. Now, 
tell me, how can such men be Christians? Some 
say they do not see it in this light. If they do not 
understand such plain teaching, they are not fit for 
the Gospel ministry, and should be silenced for 
their ignorance. 

But I cannot believe some of them are as ignorant 
as all that ; they know better. I have no doubt but 
some follow their own sympathies in preference to 
Paul's teaching ; others take that ground because it 
is more popular, and yields a better livelihood ; but 
many enter the antislavery circle out of prejudice 
and malice. But much the larger number enter into 
the arena because they know it to be more exciting 
than any other question, and produces the greatest 
amount of bad feelings, bickerings, and sectional 
hatreds ; and last, but not least, because it is entirely 
sectional, and they can lavish their slanders without 
personal danger. " If any man teach otherwise," &c. 
AVli at does St. Paul mean by these words? Does 
he not condemn all that oppose slavery? Does he 
not advocate directly the right of property in 
men, and that it is the will of the Lord ? " And all 
who teach otherwise are proud, doting about words, 
to try to make the word of God of no effect." Has 
not the doings in the M. E. Church and others been 
a complete fulfilment of what St. Paul said in the 
4th and 5th verses ? What has been the result of 
the opposition to slavery, or of antislavery gospel 
king? Read those verses, and then read the 
history of the churches prior to 18-iO, and investigate 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 97 

its troubles since that time, and tell me what did the 
mischief. Where did all the evil surmisings come 
from? How all this bitterness in the Church of 
God? How about all the disputings, splits, and 
everlasting separations? And what has produced 
the secession of six States from this Union, and the 
almost certainty of the separation of five or six 
more? What has caused the seizing upon go- 
vernment property by ruthleo^ mobs, and what 
caused the bombardment of Fort Sumter last week ? 
What has been the means of calling 75,000 men out 
under arms, ready for the battle-field ? What 'has 
given infidelity the victory over the church ? Who 
has done all this? A?itislavery preaching, with all 
the combined powers of the devil and abolitionists, 
who may soon have the pleasure of hearing of a 
million of human souls being sent into eternity by 
the sword, unprepared. 

I refer the reader again to the first five verses of 
the vi. chapter of 1 Timothy, and hope they may 
read them over and over until they understand 
them, and look over the present condition of the 
church and state, and ask themselves the question 
as standing at the bar of the eternal God, Who has 
done all this mischief? 

Paul's letter to Titus ii. says — 

9. "Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, 
and to please them well in all things; not answering again ; 

10. Not purloining, but showing all good fidelity ; that they 
may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." 

Here the Apostle also tells Titus to "exhort serv- 
ants to be obedient to their masters in all things ; 
9 



98 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

answering not again/' that is, they must not hesitate 
when they hear their masters' command, but obey it 
to the strictest letter, and not steal their masters' 
property nor no other, but show all good fidelity, 
that they might adorn the doctrine of God their 
Saviour in all tilings. "But," says the abolitionist, 
"those were all hired servants." I will ask how 
hired servants came to have masters, and why could 
they not do as they pleased, and if they did not do 
their duty, could not their employers have discharged 
them and hired others that would do their duty ? 
" Servant" was an accommodating term, it means a 
hired servant or a bond-servant. But slave means 
a bond-slave only, and could not be made to cover 
both, therefore the word servant was used by the 
translators. The thing being so clear to their minds, 
that no doubt, they thought a dispute could not arise. 
I think, perhaps, they did not know the devil as well 
as they did the languages of the ancients. I insert 
these passages in full for the convenience of the 
reader, that he may see how much more comprehen- 
sive the Apostle was whenever he alludes to the 
servants. If one of the relations alluded to be wrong 
and sinful, all of them are morally wrong, but if 
any of them are right, they are all right. 

I would like some good anti-slavery man to ex- 
plain to me why the Apostle was more comprehen- 
sive and particular in his exhortation to the slaves 
than he was to any others? If they were journey- 
men and had a right to leave off at pleasure, or if 
the master had a right to discharge them without 
loss, why was the extra language used in the 22d 



AFRICAN" SLAVERY. 99 

verse ; look at it, and tell me why, if they were not 
slaves for life. These passages are so emphatic and 
clear, that with even casual readers, comment is 
unnecessary, and not one word was left on record, 
from the history of the fall of man to the Kevela- 
tions, that makes comment necessary to the attentive 
and unprejudiced reader. I feel compelled to say, 
that every abolitionist who reads the Bible, and says 
the relation of master and slave is a sin against 
God, is an infidel, and ought not to be allowed a 
place in the Christian ministry. Suppose a minister 
of the gospel should denounce the relation of husband 
and wife, and parents and children, as a sin against 
God, and constantly labor to separate them by any 
means that would produce the effect. Would such 
a one be tolerated in the Christian church? No, 
not one month. And society would hold him up to 
scorn and derision. Why then should abolitionists 
be tolerated in the Christian church, when the rela- 
tion of master and slave is even more strongly 
sustained in the text, than that of husband and 
wife, and parents and children. Did St. Paul any- 
where instruct the people how to be idolaters, or to 
commit adultery, perjury, theft, extortion, or intoxica- 
tion t Does the Scriptures anywhere instruct those 
who in violation of the matrimonial law, and live 
in unchaste intercourse with each other, how they 
must act towards each other in the unlawful relation 
which they have assumed? But the Scriptures 
everywhere teach us that if we have stolen, to steal 
no more. But they nowhere tell us that the relation 
of master and slave must be broken up. No, not 



100 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

even one single intimation was given that we can 
draw an inference that it was objected to. I will 
also refer the reader to Paul's letter to Philemon, 
which was a private letter, and was not intended for 
the public, for Philemon was not an Apostle, but 
had been converted under the preaching of Paul 
long before Paul went to Rome, where he was a 
prisoner when he wrote this epistle to Philemon. 
I will here give the whole letter of Paul to Phile- 
mon — 

The Epistle of Paul to Philemon. — 1. " Paul, a prisoner 
of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our 
dearly-beloved, and fellow-laborer, 

2. And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellow- 
soldier, and to the church in thy house : 

3. Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

4. I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my 
prayers, 

5. Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the 
Lord Jesus, and toward all saints ; 

6. That the communication of thy faith may become effectual 
by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in 
Christ Jesus. 

7. For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because 
the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. 

8. Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to 
enjoin thee that which is convenient, 

9. Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such a 
one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus 
Christ; 

10. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have 
begotten in my bonds : 

11. Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now 
profitable to thee and to me : 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 101 

12. Whom I have sent again ; thou therefore receive him, 
that is mine own bowels ; 

13. Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead 
he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel : 

14. But without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy 
benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly. 

15. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that 
thou shouldest receive him for ever ; 

16. Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother 
beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both 
in the flesh and in the Lord ? 

17. If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as 
myself. 

18. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put that 
on mine account ; 

19. I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay 
it : albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even 
thine own self besides. 

20. Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord : refresh 
my bowels in the Lord. 

21. Having confidence in thy obedience, I wrote unto thee, 
knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say. 

32. But withal prepare me also a lodging : for I trust that 
through your prayers I shall be given unto you. 

23. There salute thee Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner in Christ 
Jesus ; 

24. Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow-laborers. 

25. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. 
Amen. 

fl Written from Rome to Philemon, by Onesimus a servant. 

Why did Paul not advise Onesimus to stay away 
from his master Philemon, when he could have done 
it without its ever having been known by his mas- 
ter ? If Paul had been a timid man, what a chance 
here was for him to have done right without em- 
barrassment. But it is very clear that he was not a 

9* 



102 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

timid man, for he made the very foundations of 

heathen mythology and society to tremble, by 

proclaiming the Gospel of Christ everywhere in 

public, from Jerusalem to Eome, and denounced 

their idols, their adulteries, fornications, drunkenness, 

barbarism, dishonesty, and oppressions, and every 

kind of wickedness, and told them that God could 

not behold any of those things with the least degree 

of allowance, and reminded them on the highway, 

and upon the house-top, and in church, irrespective 

of prisons and bonds, that God would judge them. 

If slavery had been wrong, he would not have sent 

Onesimus home with the above epistle. It is evident 

he would have denounced the relation of master and 

slave, and told Philemon he was sinning against 

God, and, unless he set Onesimus free, he would be 

sent away with the devil and his angels into outer 

darkness, where there would be weeping, wailing, 

and gnashing of teeth. Yet the apostle, with all his 

courage and boldness in denouncing sin of every 

kind, tolerates slavery, by sending Onesimus back 

to his master (although he had become a Christian) 

with the above epistle ; although Philemon was far 

away from Paul's prison-house, yet he seemed to 

have no rest after he learned that Onesimus was a 

fugitive from bondage, and his Christian brother 

Philemon's legal property. 

If slavery be a moral evil, why did the apostle 
send Onesimus back to bondage, from which he had 
fled, with an epistle to his master Philemon, who had 
been converted under Paul, without inserting one 
single sentence against his moral right to Onesimus 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 103 

as his property ? Being now far from his master's 
power, just as much so as a slave from Georgia is when 
in Canada. 'If it had been right for him to have 
continued free, why did this inspired apostle of 
Christ send him back to bondage ? Did he not see 
by the wisdom that God had given him ; that he 
could not be a true apostle of Jesus Christ unless he 
did so ? That Onesimus could not remain there and 
be a righteous man, in the sight of God, while owing 
service to his master without his master's consent. 
Why was this. epistle handed down to us as a part 
of the Scriptures of truth, containing Paul's direction 
in this case ? Was it not for our instruction on the 
subject of slavery ? Certainly no Christian man 
will say it was not. How a professing Christian can 
endeavor to give so different a meaning to all the 
passages in, the Old and New Testaments, I cannot 
tell ; and when I read the 18th and 19th verses of 
the last chapter of Ee v., as follows : — 

18. "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words 
of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these 
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in 
this book. 

19. And if any man shall take away from the words of the 
book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the 
book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which 
are written in this book." 

I tremble at the thought of even bad men trying 
to overthrow the Christian Church, by misconstruing 
the Holy Scriptures ; but I fear more when men, 
professing to be the followers and believers in the 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and declare they are 



104: AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

called of him- to preach his own everlasting Gospel 
to a fallen, sinful, and dying world — wlien they enter 
the sanctuary under a pretence of administering in 
holy things, and expounding the holy Scriptures, 
and then condemn and denounce as the " sum of all 
villainy" what is so clearly taught throughout divine 
revelation by all the inspired writers of that holy 
book of God, who mentioned the relation of master 
and slave, I say I fear more that some terrible 
judgments will be let fall upon us of the nineteenth 
century. "When our ministers of the Gospel of 
Christ, in the teeth of the warning quoted above 
from Kevelations — right in opposition to the clearest 
teachings of divine revelation, declare the relation 
of master and slave to be a sin against God, when it 
is their imperative duty to sustain that relation just 
as much as it is to sustain the relation of husband 
and wife or father and child ; for the teachings of 
divine inspiration in reference to the relation of 
master and servant is more impressively taught, and 
made more imperatively the duty of every teacher of 
the Holy Bible to sustain the relations of master and 
slave, and it is their imperative duty, under the Gos- 
pel Dispensation, to use every honorable means to 
send fugitives from labor home to their masters, 
whenever they come in contact with them. If they 
do not do this, and " teach otherwise," they are ten- 
fold more the children of the devil than they were 
before the Bishop laid his hands on their heads, be- 
cause they refuse to declare the whole gospel truth, 
not only by withholding such parts of it as do not 
suit their taste, but they denounce those certain 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 105 

portions as being from the devil, and in league with 
hell. 

St. Paul everywhere exhorts the slaves to be obe- 
dient to their masters in all things, not to neglect 
their work, not to serve with eye service — that is, 
they were required to be just as faithful in the per- 
formance of their duty in the absence of their 
masters as when they were present with them — not 
to steal nor waste anything that belong to their 
masters, but to perform every duty as to God, and 
they should have a reward in heaven, whether they 
be " bond or free ;" that is, whether they were of the 
Israelites, who could not be made slaves for life, and 
had to be treated as hired servants, or whether they 
were of the heathen, for whom there was no liberty 
or freedom in this world promised. They were all 
alike exhorted to faithfulness to their masters, with- 
out which they had no promises of heaven hereafter. 
And even the return of them to their masters, when 
ihey run away, is required of the Church, as St. Paul 
sent Onesimus directly home to Philemon, his master. 
" If any man teach otherwise," he is a Irypocrite — a 
child of the devil; and for "teaching otherwise," he 
shall have his " portion in the lake that burns with 
fire and brimstone forever, yea, forever- and ever." 
They will not only destroy the Christian Church, 
which is the only hope of the free government, but 
they will break up this great and glorious free 
republican government, if they have' not already 
done it, and placed it almost beyond the hope of 
recovery, by their unlawful and ungodly opposition 



106 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

to negro slavery, whose condition never can be 
bettered in this country outside of slavery. 

There is no philanthropy so merciful as that of 
slavery for the poor unfortunate Africans. There is 
no trade more hated, and that has the appearance of 
greater wickedness, than the slave trade. My own 
soul abhors the very idea of the foreign slave trade. 
The Eev. John Wesley said it was the " sum of all 
villainies ;" Adam Clarke said very strong things 
against it, though, perhaps, he never saw a negro 
slave, and but few negroes, if any, as his entire life 
was spent in Europe ; therefore he had no personal 
knowledge of the relation of master and slave. Yet 
he fully justified the moral right to hold slaves for 
life, throughout his Commentary on the Bible. 
After Mr. Wesley made use of that very strong 
denunciation, he visited the United States and the 
West India Islands, and saw the condition of master 
and slave. He received masters and slaves both into 
the church, and administered the sacraments to them, 
baptized the children of slaveholders, ancl, I believe, 
if I recollect right, licensed slaveholders to preach 
the Gospel of God our Saviour. He was not heard 
to utter a word against the institution of slavery, or 
tell any slaveholder that he was a thief, murderer, 
and robber, because he was a slaveholder, or that 
slavery was a moral evil, as it existed in the United 
States or the West Indies; and, if I am not mistaken 
in my recollection of facts, he admonished the mis- 
sionaries coming to the United States not to interfere 
with the relation of master and slave, but to preach 
the Gospel to both alike. Yet with all the abhor- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 107 

rence to the foreign slave trade, and Mr. "Wesley's 
denunciation, it has produced more civilization, and 
raised more human beings from heathenism and bar- 
barism to Christianity, than all the missionary efforts 
of the world besides, "since the reformation, though 
they have done much good for civilization and true 
Christianity. I know I shall be branded with the 
most terrible names for giving utterance to such 
sentiments ; if so, I must bear it the best I can, for 
if I speak at all on the subject, I must speak what I 
believe to be the truth, as taught in history. As I 
have said, I am a true friend of the negro race, and 
pity them ; but human nature, common sense, and 
reason, philanthropy, Christianity, and my great love 
and admiration of this great and glorious Union, and 
the fear of the judgments of Almighty God, binds 
me to these opinions. 

Does it not look as if my fears were about to be 
realized ? Look at the condition of our great coun- 
try — are we not on the very verge of a bloody civil 
war ? Where will it end when once inaugurated ? 
Can it be restored by any compromises, after hostili- 
ties once set it ? Can we have Union without love 
and harmony between the slave and free States? 
Will the taking of their slaves from them produce 
love and harmony between the two extremes ? For 
that is the only object of the anti-slavery party. Oppo- 
sition to slavery has brought us to this awful crisis. 
With an army behind us so terrible that it is resist- 
less, while we are on the brink of an endless gulf of 
the eternal overthrow of the best government on 
which the sun has ever shone (I don't mean the 



108 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

present administration), and it is only a step before 
us, which can be averted only by a speedy return 
to our loyalty, to the Constitution, and laws of the 
United States, which have been trampled upon by 
some of the free States for many years, and a speedy 
return to Christian- forbearance and love, as taught 
by our Saviour and his holy Apostles. 

The free States now have the truly religious 
means within their reach to save the whole nation 
from a collision that will engulf us, as a nation, 
perhaps forever. We are not asked. to concede any- 
thing that belongs to us. If we speedily turn, and 
do right in the sight of heaven, we shall be saved ; 
if we do not, national ruin, with anarchy or a terri- 
ble and perpetual despotism may be the result of 
our folly. 

I will give a short extract from a letter I received 
from the Hon. Edward Everett, of Boston, a short 
time ago, for those who differ with me about the 
loyalty of some of the free States. Some of us 
wanted to get up a large mass meeting, to avert, if 
possible, the calamities we saw before us. I was 
requested to write to Mr. Everett, and invite him to 
come on, and make a speech on the occasion. I 
wrote, and received an answer, from which I quote 
the following from recollection, as I have not the 
letter before me — 

" There is no use of making any more speeches for the Union, 
unless the free States will repeal their unconstitutional personal 
liberty bills." 

Mr. Everett must pardon me if I have erred in 
the wording, I have given the very sentiment, and 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 109 

it is full of meaning. I have spent about twenty- 
six years of my time in the slave States, and twenty- 
nine years in the free. I have been well acquainted 
in nine or ten of the slave States. And had it not 
been for my objections to having anything to do 
with slave labor, I should have settled in the State 
of Mississippi many years ago. For a finer, more 
liberal, agreeable, and devout Christian people, I 
have never seen in this world, of whom I have 
spoken in full in the first two or three chapters of 
this book, and to my notion, one of the most pleasant 
climates in this country, for those who are not com- 
pelled to labor constantly in the hot sun. I have 
travelled a good deal, and been a considerable ob- 
server of the happiness of the people. But I have 
never seen a class of persons so happy as the negro 
slaves of that State. I never saw one exception 
among the slaves of the South, nor one maltreated, 
and never knew of but one being badly flogged. I 
did not see that, but if I was to tell what for, you 
would wonder that he had not been killed on the 
spot. I knew all the parties well. 

The stories about maltreatment to slaves, are the 
foulest and most unmitigated slanders that were ever 
hatched up by the devil and his emissaries. If 
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mrs. Childs, the Misses Grim- 
kies, Dred, and a thousand and one more, had been 
born in the lower regions of the damnation of hell, 
and had been educated at the feet of old Apollyon, 
they could not have belched out more foul, infamous 
slanders, than they have done in the many books 
they have written against slavery and slaveholders. 
10 



110 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

No one has a better knowledge of the infamous 
slanders than they have. And thousands of ministers 
of the gospel join in and help spread those slanders 
from the desk that has been dedicated to the service 
of the living God, knowing them to be false in many 
cases, and if they do not, they ought to be expelled 
from the ministry for their ignorance. But they 
cannot be so ignorant, for common sense and reason 
teaches better things. They are the employees of 
the King of darkness, who he has commissioned 
and sent forth to destroy the hopes of mankind. 
LTow does their teachings compare with the Apostle 
Paul in the quotations herein made from the Bible ? 
Henry Ward Beecher says from his pulpit, that 
Sharp's rifles are the best gospels, and the only one 
lit to preach to slaveholders. He sent his agents out 
with Sharp's rifles in their hands, and a Bible in 
their pockets, to administer to slaveholders with 
powder and bullets ; and I suppose the Bible was 
for the negroes and followers of the abolition gospel 
preachers. A celebrated Methodist preacher stationed 
at one of our finest churches, said in a sermon on 
the war — 

"Brethren, I feel that I cannot restrain myself much longer. 
I must shoulder my musket, start for the rebels, and the first 
one I meet, I will discharge the contents of my musket through 
him, and while the blood is weltering from his veins, I will 
kneel down by his side, and pray God to pardon his sins." 
" Great Britain," said he, " is threatening to come and attack 
us, but" (clasped his thumb to his nose, and spreading his 
fingers like an ape) " let her come, and she will never try it 
again." 

Now I ask, how much of the mind that was in our 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. Ill 

Lord, was in that man ? How much of the spirit 
that moved St. Paul when he was preaching to both 
masters and slaves ? Are such as the above possessed 
with love ? Christ said "we must love our enemies, 
return good for evil, and by so doing we shall heap 
up coals of fire on their heads." The sword of the 
spirit is the only weapon of warfare our Lord be- 
queathed to those he sent forth to preach his own 
everlasting gospel. And as soon as we take up the 
temporal sword, the Holy Spirit takes its flight. 
Our Lord said to Peter — 

Matt. xxvi. 52. " Put up again thy sword into his place : 
for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." 

Has all our preachers obeyed this admonition of 
our Lord. Or did he give his ambassadors licenses 
that he had not from the great God who sent him 
to us as his great ambassador. Compare these 
abolition gospel preachers with our Lord and his 
Apostles, and where do they stand on the slave 
question? How did the prophets, the patriarchs, 
our Lord, and his Apostles, treat upon slavery and 
slaveholders ? Why, our Lord said to his disciples 
in reference to a large slaveholder, "I have not 
found so great faith, no not in Israel." Paul said, 
"slaves, obey your masters in all things." "Yet 
as many as are under the yoke count their own 
masters worthy of all honor." 

A preacher said to some gentlemen the other day, 
that he almost desired to be the devil from now 
throughout all eternity, that he might, go down to 
hell to torture the slaveholders, by piling them up 
and dashing them to pieces against each other, to 



112 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

increase their torture throughout all eternity: that 
he feared he, the devil, would be too lenient towards 
slaveholders. I am glad to say this was not a 
methodist preacher. 

How it is that the masses can be so blinded and 
led by such devils incarnate, is entirely beyond my 
comprehension; and how it is that so many good 
people seem so blind that they do not see the vortex 
of ruin just before them that these abolition leaders 
and preachers are leading them into. And if we do 
not speedily awake from our sleep of blindness and 
hurl these infidel traitors from our midst, or ever- 
lastingly silence them, our great and glorious govern- 
ment, that was so heaven-like, will be lost forever, 
and we shall be placed under a despotism that will 
end all our liberties, and our happiness of course ; 
or some other diabolical change will take place. 
War will end all our hopes for future happiness ; 
nothing can now save us but for us to submit to be 
guided by the teachings found in the gospel of Christ 
on the subject in dispute. 

I was in Mississippi in 1844 while the General 
Conference Of the M. E. Church was in session in 
New York, which struck the first official and fatal 
blow at the union of these States. The alarm among 
the people was beyond description; they thought the 
people of the free States were determined to drive 
them out of the Union. They looked upon it as a 
direct attack upon their rights when Bishop Andrews 
was deposed because he had married a lady that 
owned two or three little negro children that had 
been left her. How must every Christian slaveholder 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 113 

have felt when that most ungodly and unfortunate 
step was taken. It unlocked the first door to our 
ecclesiastical and national ruin, and the complete 
breaking of the glorious systems that God had in 
his goodness blessed us with. The cotton States 
then were as the antechamber of Paradise. There 
were then no distractions, except the bowlings of the 
abolitionists of the north, and the response of a few 
fire-eaters of the south, who were the legitimate off- 
spring of the abolitionists of the free States. They 
were, called fire-eaters because they threw back the 
charges made against them by the anti-slavery party 
with contemptuous indignation. The abolitionists 
aimed their blows at their tenderest spots for no 
other purpose than to break up this great and glo- 
rious Union. They made slavery the pretext, and 
it was only a pretext ; for, what can such fellows as 
the preacher who said he would like to be the devil 
(for fear the old devil would fail in his duty to slave- 
holders) care for the poor slaves ! About as much 
as the serpent cared about the happiness of our first 
parents, when he seemed to pity them so much for 
their ignorance of good and evil, when their ruin 
was his only object. 

So also those devils incarnate pretend to love and 
pity the poor slaves, and swell out great big words 
of admiration for the union of States ; yet they pre- 
tend to love the dear slaves a little better, and by 
that means they know just as well as the devil did 
that the tasting of the fruit would curse Adam, that 
their course would destroy the peace and tranquillity 
of this nation and our liberties, and ruin the last 
10* 



114 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

hope for poor Africa. All this is aimed at the root 
of Christianity ; it is a hatred towards God, and the 
peace and happiness of mankind. Theft, slander, 
persecution, and abuse have been the means used to 
overthrow this nation, that the Christian Church 
might be overthrown. 

I am met with the reply that it is only a few reli- 
gious fanatics who do these things. I say that is 
not so ; it is whole communities, counties, and States 
united with those fanatics. Did not the State of 
Massachusetts elect Charles Sumner to the United 
States Senate the second time when they knew just 
what he was? How many of the free States have 
passed laws which completely annul the constitu- 
tional rights of the slave States. Get the slave laws 
of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ehode Island, and 
Connecticut, called personal liberty bills, and read 
them over until the scales shall fall from your eyes, 
and you will see that they were framed expressly to 
embarrass the Constitution and the laws of the United 
States, and thereby to rob the slaveholders of their 
own lawful property. These things were done many 
years ago, and with them the persecutions and slan- 
ders have been unceasing. And what has been more 
insulting than anything else, those terrible denuncia- 
tions have been made by Christian ministers from 
the pulpit to large and crowded houses, and now the 
terrible judgments of Almighty God are upon us, 
and no man seems to repent of his sin against heaven 
and earth. May the Lord have mercy upon us, and 
save us from the judgments which now stare us in 
the face; for if they are not averted they will soon 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 115 

burst upon us like the raging winds and seas upon 
the rock-bound mariner. Almost the only passage 
that the abolition party ever quote from the Bible to 
condemn slavery is the general rule or precept given 
by our Lord, Matt. vii. 12. 

" Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should 
do to you, do ye even so to them : for this is the law and the 
prophets." 

How this passage can be construed to affect the 
lawful relations of men, is as puzzling to me as auy- 
thing else they do. This precept is a general one, 
and if the anti-slavery party had only just obeyed it, 
we should now be at peace throughout this entire 
country. For it compels them to treat the slave- 
holders just as they would have the slaveholders to 
treat them. How would they have the slaveholders 
to treat them ? With all candor and respect in all his 
lawful right. He would not have the slaveholders 
to interfere with anything which belongs to him 
without his permission ; he would not have them to 
insult him by calling him hard names, and proclaim 
to large audiences that he was a thief, murderer, and 
a robber. Now, under this precept he is bound to 
treat the slaveholder with the same kindness in all 
things whatever, which he might desire from the 
slaveholders. And if he cannot fully realize his 
duty, let him completely reverse the circumstances 
between himself and the slaveholder, by supposing 
himself born and brought up a slaveholder, and sup- 
pose he had five hundred slaves on his plantation, 
how would he have the people of the North to treat 
him ? Would he not have them to treat him with 



116 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

all kindness and respect in all of his lawful rights ? 
Then, by this precept of our Lord, are you not bound 
to treat the slaveholder with that kindness which 
you would require if placed where he is ? But you 
say, the relation of masters and slaves is a very dif- 
ferent thing. So it is. But does that change the 
question in the least ? Are not slaves bound by the 
same precept just as much as their masters? Are 
they not required to render such service and obe- 
dience to their masters in all things, that they would 
have their masters to render unto them full obedience 
and service, if their circumstances were completely 
reversed? And the master is only required to treat 
his slaves as he would be treated by them, if he was 
their slave ; besides, it is his lawful right to hold such 
persons in slavery. 

But no white man who is a true descendant of 
Shem can be righteously enslaved, except for crime, 
for the laws of heaven forbid it. But not so with 
the Africans. An all-merciful God decreed that they 
should be slaves to the Israelites without limitation. 
Although it was over twenty -three hundred years 
before Christ, yet he in his day never uttered a 
word against the slave law ; and he blest men who 
were large slaveholders, without saying to them that 
it was sinful. We find St. Paul, some fifty or sixty 
years after Christ, enjoining the duties of slaves to 
their masters upon them in the strictest manner, and 
also the duties of masters to their slaves, and not a 
word uttered by that great man of God against the 
slave laws, or a petition for their repeal. But woe 
be unto every master who shall maltreat slaves by 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 117 

putting more on them than they are fully able to 
bear, or by withholding from them sufficient good 
wholesome food and comfortable clothing ; for they 
have a Master in heaven, who will hold them to a 
strict accountability for their treatment to the ser- 
vants God has allotted to them to care and provide 
for. 

Suppose we should give to this injunction of our 
Lord the one-sided definition that abolitionists do, 
and that construction should be agreed upon the 
world over. Let us see what the result would be : 
A criminal stands before the court for sentence, he 
addresses himself to his honor, and says: if your 
honor were in my place, and I in yours, your honor 
would have me to discharge you without sentence. 
Therefore, I demand of your honor to do to me as 
you would have me do to you, and let me go free. 
The culprit on the platform, under sentence of death, 
would say to the sheriff, you know you would not 
have me to hang you, if our circumstances were re- 
versed, you know you would have me say to you 
go in peace, and sin no more. Therefore, I demand 
of you to do as you would be done by, take off 
these shackles, and let me go free. This definition 
to this injunction would ruin the world if men 
should go by it. "While on the other hand, the 
injunction with the legitimate construction, and the 
only one which can be put on it by true men, if 
all should resolve to live by it, wars and rumors of 
wars would cease, and the whole world would be at 
peace in a very short space of time. There would 
be no quarrelling, no fighting, no cheating, no steal- 



118 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

ing, and a police force would be useless. It is a 
most glorious precept. One of its principles seems 
to be overlooked altogether by the abolitionist. 
That is, it forbids one man to ask of another what 
he feels in his soul that he would not do for him if 
circumstances were reversed. And no honest man 
will ask another to help him under such circum- 
stances. So much for this precept of out Lord. 

But slavery is a sin, or moral evil, says the aboli- 
tionist, therefore must and shall be destroyed, even 
if church and state shall both be destroyed with it. 
How came slavery or anything else to be a moral 
evil ? There must be some rule by which morals 
are established, therefore there must be a moral law, 
or there can be no moral evil. It is conceded by 
all abolitionists that there is moral evil, therefore 
they must admit that there is a moral law. If there 
is a moral law, where did it come from, and by 
whom was it established ? There was a moral law 
among the antediluvians. But the first written law 
we have any account of, was written by Moses, and 
it seems that it was handed down to him by the 
Almighty in the mountain. And in that very law, 
slavery was fully recognized. Gen. xvii. 12-13, 
Ex. xx. 17, Lev. xxv. 38-55. Those passages I 
have copied in full in the previous chapter. It is 
enough to show that slavery was fully recognized 
by Moses, the great Jewish lawgiver, in both the t 
moral and civil law. The decalogue, or ten com- 
mandments, was given to Moses at the mouth of the 
Lord himself. And in that, slavery is fully recog- 
nized by the eternal God, and no slave laws in the 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 119 

United States are more positive than those contained 
in the xxv. of Lev. There can be no moral law 
without divine sanction. 

If none of the laws of Moses have divine sanction 
npon them, then there could not have been any 
moral evil. Then if there' is any moral evil in the 
world, God must have directed the passage of the 
laws of Moses, for there could not have been any 
morals without his presence, and as slavery is re- 
cognized in those laws, it must have been recognized 
as a moral right. The xxv. of Lev., the 38th and 
55th verses, ought to be noticed with marked atten- 
tion, as one immediately precedes, and the other 
immediately follows the most positive pro-slavery 
laws ever enacted in the world. Eead from the 38th 
to the end of the chapter, and you must admit divine 
sanction was given to all those verses, if there is 
any truth in the declaration, that all Scripture was 
written by divine inspiration. 

There are no passages of Scripture which con- 
demns human slavery as it exists in this country. 
There is not one line, nor one word, from which an 
inference can be drawn against the relation of master 
and slave. The relation of husband and wife has 
not got such Scriptural protection thrown around it 
that slavery has. And I suppose the only reason 
for that was, the inspired writers knew that the 
relation of husband and wife would not at any age 
of the world need the amount of support, because 
it was more natural and congenial to both parties 
than slavery ever would be. There is great caution 
given by St. Paul to husbands and wives to love 



120 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

each other, but their obligations were not so particu- 
larly and specially enjoined, as that to masters and 
servants. And doubtless the reasons were, that the 
spirit which impressed the minds of the inspired 
writers what to write, saw far in the future the bold 
opposition that would be made to his arrangements 
for the good of mankind by abolitionists. Therefore 
the difference, or extra advice to masters and slaves. 
What has been the result of the interference with 
the moral and civil rights to hold slaves as pro- 
perty ? The frightful condition of our great repub- 
lican empire at this time are its legitimate results ; 
and unless the precept of our Lord shall be speedily 
and righteously adhered to, our great free republican 
government will be eternally overthrown, and we 
shall be reduced to an equality with negro slaves. 
The just judgments of the Almighty are already 
upon us ; an attempt to save the Union by the force 
of arms will blast all our hopes as a free and inde- 
pendent nation and people forever, and proclaim to 
the whole world that man is incapable of self- 
government. We were a free and independent 
people, governed by laws made by the people — a 
general government with a limited central power, 
conceded by a number of free sovereign States. 
The adoption of the Constitution by all the people 
of all the sovereign States, produced a free Eepub- 
lican Constitutional Union of all free citizens of 
North America. It was a free-will offering or con- 
cession of all the people, for the good of the whole. 
Therefore, if one part interferes with the Constitu- 
tional rights of the other, and resolves upon any 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 121 

•unconstitutional plans to limit or circumscribe those 
rights, having the numerical power to do so, the 
minority or the oppressed are no longer under any 
obligations to the other, and can withdraw at plea- 
sure. This is common sense, common reason, and 
common law. This was the opinion of most all 
good men. The Honorable John Quincy Adams, of 
Mass., gave it as his opinion in a positive way, a 
short time before his death. How truly does he 
say— 

" But the indissoluble link of the union between the people 
of the several States of this confederated nation is, after all, 
1 not in the right,' ' but in the heart.'' " And also, "far better 
will it be for the people of the disunited States, to part in 
friendship with each other, than be 'held together with con- 
straint I" 

Mr. Adams took the only true ground ; that our 
strength was in the union, and not in the right. 
Now, this being the case, as every common sense 
man in the nation must agree, who has given the 
principles of a free republican constitutional Union 
like ours only a limited, impartial study, in con- 
nection with a slight knowledge of human nature, 
how it is that so many people seem to think that 
one part of this great nation has a right to slander, 
abuse, oppress, and hate the other part, and limit 
them in their lawful rights, and then force them to 
live in a union with us, is too ridiculous for sensible 
men to believe. I hear professing Christian men 
denouncing our southern brethren as the greatest 
scoundrels and devils on the face of the earth, and de- 
clare they shall not leave us if it cost $10,000,000,000 
11 



122 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

and one million, or even five millions of lives of 
white men to force them to live in the Union with 
ns. That is, they would do all this to make slaves 
of eight millions of white citizens, of our own race 
and blood, who are fully capable of self-government, to 
free less than four millions of black negroes, not of 
our race or blood, and made totally incapable of self - 
government by a decree of the Almighty, and must have 
guardians, or be miserable through all time, if not 
throughout eternity. We have just as good a right 
to suppose King "Dehomi" is fit for President of the 
United States, as to suppose the slaves of this country 
are fit for freedom and self-government. And just so 
sure as we betray our trust, and set them free in this 
country, God will judge us as not being fit for self- 
government ; and every man who is not a million- 
aire, will be reduced to slavery, and placed on an 
equality with negroes. How men can take the 
course they do for the emancipation of that race who 
are so physically dissimilar, and even obnoxious to 
the sight and taste of every decent white person, and 
right in the face of the most positive teachings of 
inspired truth, is an enigma of which I must decline 
the solution. 

The Gospel tends, in its effects, to abolish im- 
prisonment, capital punishment, war, ■ and even 
involuntary servitude to a limited extent. When 
the people are all righteous, sheriffs and police will 
be of no further use, the penal code will be a dead 
letter, courts of all kinds will be held as a mere 
prudential system for the convenience of the people, 
and perhaps the Decalogue or ten commandments 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 123 

will be the only law on the statute books. What 
has broken up our peace and happiness as a Chris- 
tian society? "What has been the greatest disturber 
of the peace and happiness of this great nation for 
the last forty years ? What has separated the Chris- 
tian churches of this country, and what is now sepa- 
rating this great and mighty Eepublican Empire? 
Who and what is plunging us into a bloody civil or 
servile war, and perhaps bloody revolutions, which 
may not end in a hundred years, and will end only by 
reducing us to slavery under one of the most extreme 
despotisms that has ever reigned over any people ? 
Then the difference between the white man and 
negro will not be respected by our rulers. I say, 
what has done all this mischief? Abolitionism, 
with their unlawful and ungodly opposition to slave- 
ry; and all the responsibility, with all the awful 
consequences are upon them. There was no room 
for a doubt, that if the Chicago Platform was sus- 
tained by a vote of the people, our ruin would be 
sealed by that act. That we should be whipped 
with many stripes was certain. All who had 
watched the course of things, and had given human 
nature a proper study, had not the slightest doubt 
of the fatal result. There never has been an event 
in the world that was more Gertain to follow any 
contingencies than the secession of the Cotton States 
from the Union on the success of the Chicago Plat- 
form, or the success of a candidate who had given 
his solemn pledge to sustain it if elected. I was 
astonished to find so many good men who accepted it 
as their political creed, and who looked upon us as 



124 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

the greatest fools for seeming to fear any clanger. 
They said, in reply to our warnings, that there was 
not a man in South Carolina who could be kicked 
out of the Union. 

The prospective result was so clear to me, in case 
that that most unconstitutional political creed was 
sustained at the Presidential election of 1860, that I 
sometimes almost doubted their sincerity, because it 
was so strange to me that every man of observation 
did not seem to see it, for it was the very course of 
nature. Christian men seemed now to rely on the 
arm of Jehovah, and are now bold in saying that 
they have no fear while he is on the Throne ; that 
the South are altogether in the wrong, and he will 
rebuke them by turning their negroes upon them, 
and they would soon call on us to save them from 
the savage tribe, and the negroes would all be freed 
without our striking a blow. 

Sayings of this kind are in almost every Kepub- 
lican mouth. If I believed Jehovah is on our side, 
I should not suffer as I do. But I fear we are not in 
the right, and I cannot claim divine aid in a war for 
the emancipation of the negro slaves of the South. 
I believe the judgments of God are already upon us 
for our interference with his own arrangements 
among men ; and so sure as we go on to coerce the 
Southern States, our downfall will be completed. 

Every southern leader offered to accept the Crit- 
tenden Compromise, which gave us the three-fourths 
of all the public domain of the United States as free 
territory, which was more than I thought they would 
do. If we had accepted that, and removed every 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 125 

unconstitutional obstacle out of the way, including the 
Chicago Platform, and the South had then seceded, as 
they have done, I believe God wonld then have been 
on our side, and I should feel safe. But as it is, I have 
no hope, because I believe we are in the wrong; and 
I fear the sequel will prove it to be so when too late. 
The avenger of blood is already at our heels, and, 
unless we speedily repent and concede what is right 
in the premises, God will hold us to a severe account- 
ability. We have been interfering with their rights 
for many years, personally, collectively, and by 
statute laws. We were the first sinners against the 
Constitution of the nation, and we have acted as 
though it was made for the free States, and that the 
slave States had no part nor lot in it. Therefore, if 
we do not move first, and concede all their rights to 
them, and no more — and no more have they ever 
asked — we shall be ruined forever — ruined as a great 
nation. Our constitutional government will end 
now, and God will hold us responsible. 

I have no sympathy with secession, for they had 
no right to do wrong because we did. They are 
not clear of a fearful responsibility, and God will 
deal out justice to them in proper measure. I am a 
citizen of Pennsylvania by choice. All my interests 
are here, and here I expect to live and die. If this 
great Union is to be dissolved, I shall be a ruined 
man. There will be no hope for me on the other side 
of a dissolution of this great Eepublican Empire. 
The sound of the cannon and the bray of the war- 
horse will never cease to be heard by us, until we 
go hence. I have nothing to do with the South now. 
11* 



126 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

I might write five hundred pages of abuse and slan- 
der upon them ; it would please those I am com- 
pelled to come in contact with, and make me many 
strong friends, who now hate me because I cannot 
see and think as they do. To say what I do not 
believe, and what I know is not the truth, I will not, 
not even to save my neck from being stretched on 
the " lami^-post" or incarceration in some desolate 
Bastile. For to do so I should sin with my eyes 
wide open against heaven, my country, and my own 
personal liberties. If I could believe the word of 
God was any more certain than the course of the 
republican party is to destroy this great constitu- 
tional government, I should have some hope of a 
restoration with peace and union while that party is 
in power. But as it is, I have no hope of ever 
being a free man in the United States again, because 
I see such a determination on the part of the domi- 
nant party to coerce the seceding States back again, 
knowing the very attempt is disunion and destruc- 
tion. For union is peace, love, harmony, tranquillity, 
and mutual agreements ; but war is its very o^tposite. 
How can good make bad, or how can bad make good? 
Where does our great Christian chart recommend 
so hateful a course towards our enemies? The 
great John Quincy Adams said that the strength, 
permanency, and safety of our great Union " was not 
in the right, but in the heart;" and as long as it was 
kept in the heart, we were the strongest, the most 
powerful, and the most glorious government on the 
face of the earth. But as soon as our power was 
removed from the heart to the arm, we at once be- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 127 

come the weakest of all great nations ; and unless 
we return to our first love, our liberties and peace 
will never return to us as a great nation, and we 
shall be laughed at as fools by the whole civilized 
world, and our glorious Stars and Stripes will never 
be respected again as they have been. 

The administration, with all their violent support- 
ers, seem to be as ignorant of where our strength 
lay, as Delilah and the Philistines were of Sampson's. 
As long as God was his strength he was more than a 
match for the world. But as soon as he was shorn 
of his strength, his enemies had no trouble in pluck- 
ing out his eyes. The abolition Delilah found out 
where our strength lay as a great and mighty em- 
pire, and have been using all foul means to remove 
our strength from the heart to the head, or anywhere 
else so that it was not in the "heart." For while it 
was there God was our strength, and every civilized 
nation of the globe trembles at the thought — not at 
our rights, for there was no power in the "right," but 
in the "heart." Therefore, infidelity through the 
agency of abolitionism have shorn us of our mighty 
power by producing sectional hatreds, divided by a 
geographical line, separating the North from the 
South. And infidelity through a special pretended 
or morbid philanthropy for the negro slaves of the 
South (but none for anybody else), have labored inces- 
santly for more than forty years to remove our 
strength from the "heart" to the head and arm. 
Knowing that as soon as the North and South was 
made to hate each other, their work of ruin was 
complete. 



128 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

In order to do that, the most damning slanders 
have been originated in the free States, and published 
from pulpits, platforms, newspaper offices, books, 
and periodicals of every description and shape, and 
the man who could say the hardest things against 
their Southern brethren from their pulpits was the 
most popular preacher of the day. " Uncle Tom's 
Cabin," perhaps, was the most fatal of all other 
periodicals, because it found its way into all the 
Theatres in the free States of this country, and all 
European theatres, where our Southern brethren 
were held up to ridicule and the foulest slanders 
ever heaped upon mankind. No theatricals before 
them were ever so popular, all because the false- 
hoods and slanders excelled all before them, and 
were made against as high minded, liberal, noble 
hearted and truly Christian-like people as ever lived 
in this or any other country. 

Now, how was it possible under such circumstan- 
ces for any truly loyal citizen to have expected any- 
thing else than civil war. Nothing could have been 
more certain to follow, and yet nothing so wicked, 
unholy, and ungodly. 0, how I hate the men and 
women who have ruined my country, my home, and 
all my hopes (as a free citizen) for ever. The South- 
ern people have acted bad towards their friends in 
the free States, and no punishment would be ade- 
quate to their crime against the Constitution and 
Union of these once happy States. That being the 
case, what ought to be the punishment of those here 
in the free States who have labored so long and 
incessantly for no other purpose than to drive them 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 129 

to do just what they have clone, under the belief, 
that we could whip them without much trouble or 
expense? The great reliance being in the negro 
slaves of the South rising up and cutting the throats 
of all their owners — what could be more wicked 
than such a desire or thought ? But how sadly has 
been our mistake ; and in addition to that, however 
soon the war may terminate, we shall be slaves to a 
national debt which will bind us down for ever. 
When I know all this is the price of an ungodly 
opposition to negro slavery; yea, when I see my 
brethren and race yoked and forced from their fami- 
lies by thousands, and even hundreds of thousands, 
and driven into the field to battle for the negro 
slaves, to be set free contrary to divine revelation; 
that is, the white race are made slaves, that the 
negroes may be freed, and put out of use for ever — ■ 
I feel an indignation rising that is hard to suppress, 
for God said, they {"We, the people") should not be 
"ruled over with rigor." I will give one more 
quotation and close. 

I. Peter ii. 18. " Servants, be subject to your masters with all 
fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward." 

Here the servants are charged to be subject to 
their masters, not only to the good but also the bad 
and hard hearted, " with all fear." If I could find 
one word in the whole book of God that gave the 
slightest intimation that slavery was a moral evil, 
there would be some apology for the course of that 
class of preachers and people against it. But as there 
is no such passage, which can be sustained by other 
Scripture, there can be no apology offered in their 



130 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

behalf. They have joined themselves to the only 
class of infidelity that ever could have overthrown 
the Christian church as it existed in this country, 
and with it our great Christian-like national govern- 
ment and constitutional union, which, when rightly 
sustained, was the very counterpart of the Kingdom 
of Heaven. Yet, in all probability, the very men 
who profess to have been called by the eternal God 
to preach his own everlasting gospel to a lost and 
ruined world has ruined this great Constitutional 
government and free Kepublican Union. 

It is so strange that men cannot see the difference 
between a voluntary Union by all the people, and 
an involuntary one established by force or military 
power. If voluntary by concessions and agreements 
of all the people, as this one was formed, then of 
course it must be sustained as it was formed, or it 
must go down. This is the only plan of a free 
Eepublican Constitutional Union in which the people 
rule, or are a self-governing people. If any attempt 
is made to sustain the Union by force or military 
power, that very day you take the government out 
of the hands of the people, and we become a 
monarchical desjJOtism, and the people are no longer free. 
This is what Garrisonian abolition was established 
for in New England, and all who joined them against 
negro slavery have aided, and many have aimed at 
bringing this terrible crisis upon our glorious repub- 
lic, whether in the church or state, and it is a just 
judgment of almighty God for our attempt to de- 
stroy his own arrangements for the salvation of the 
human race. 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 181 

I am now done — I have written this chapter about 
as long again as the articles I wrote for the " Metho- 
dist," which was declined publication, for reasons 
given in the correspondence between the Eev. Mr. 
Crooks (the editor) and myself, which I now add as 
an appendix. 



LETTER I. 

" Office of 'the Methodist,' 
Nassau Bank Building, No. 7 Beekman Steeet, 
New York, February 25, 1861. 
" My Dear Bro. Robinson : — 

" I confess your article did surprise me not a little. I think 
you have made the common mistake of rushing to one extreme 
in order to avoid another. Slavery in the Bible is humanized 
and tolerated, but not, as far as I can see, sanctioned. I think 
it a state of society which men outgrow, but which they can- 
not easily be driven from by storm and bluster. Your article 
would call out replies and open controversy, which I wish to 
avoid. There is so much contending to be done necessarily, 
that I do not wish to bring on a new discussion on another 
branch of the subject, if I can help it. I have for this reason 
made no reference to Yan Dyke's sermon, which goes over the 
ground of your article. 

11 Yours truly, 

"George R. Crooks." 

Brother Crooks' note surprised me quite as much 
as mine did him. But he does not say what part 
of it surprised him so terribly. He mentions several 
points in my article, but he plainly gives one as 
his reason for refusing to publish the article, and 
that was the fear of " controversy on new points of 
this subject." If that were really his only objection 



132 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

I should be perfectly satisfied, for I do not wish to 
do wrong ; but he strongly intimates that I copied 
the Rev. Mr. Van Dyke's sermon, that was preached 
in New York or Brooklyn some time in December, 
1860. I never saw the sermon alluded to, nor heard 
of it until the morning I mailed my article to the 
Methodist. A gentleman called at my place just as 
I was going to mail it, and I asked him to read it. 
He did so. When he had finished, he remarked 
that my ideas and Eev. Mr. Yan Dyke's were simi- 
lar on the subject. That was the first intimation I 
had that a sermon had been preached by any one on 
these points; and I have not had the pleasure of 
seeing that celebrated discourse yet. But Bro. 
Crooks will find similar sentiments expressed in a 
Philadelphia daily, about the first of last November, 
in a column and a half over the cognomen of Wide 
awake. Therefore Mr. Yan Dyke was not the first 
that imbibed such sentiments. I do not think Bro. 
Crooks' insinuation was as respectful as it might 
have been. 

But Bro. Crooks says, the Bible humanized and tole- 
rated slavery, but did not sanction it. Humanize is 
to soften, or make susceptible of tenderness, or put 
in human shape or form, or to be human-like. 
Tolerate is to allow what is not lawful. It would 
appear from the declaration of the Rev. Crooks, that 
our Tleavenly Father saw fit to add to the beasts of 
burthen men and women, to be used as such ; for I 
do not see how they could be humanized in any 
other way, unless cattle and horses could be turned 
into human beings. This would be contrary to the 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 133 

laws of nature. Therefore, slavery could not be 
humanized in that way. Then 1 take the ground 
that the Bible must fully recognize slavery, or it 
could not humanize it ; for to be a slave is to be under 
the complete control of a master, the same as horses 
or cattle. I cannot apply the term to slavery in any 
other way, and I confess that the application I have 
made is rather vague to my own clumsy mind. I hope 
Mr. Crooks will tell us what he means by the Bible's 
humanizing slavery, and how it could be done with- 
out sanctioning it ; for I confess I am too dumb to 
sec. Tolerate is to allow something that is unlawful. 
Actions and doings were lawful under the Mosaic 
dispensation, that were forbidden under the laws of 
our Saviour. Acts xvii. 30. "And the times of 
this ignorance Grocl winked at, but now commandeth 
all men everywhere to repent." I understand this to 
teach that we are to turn away from all unrighteous- 
ness. Therefore, if slavery be unscriptural, it cannot 
be tolerated by the Bible ; and I cannot see how the 
Bible can tolerate anything that is contrary to divine . 
law. Therefore, if the Bible only tolerates the sys- 
tem of slavery, it must tolerate what is unlawful. If 
the word means to allow what is contrary to divine 
law, and all that is contrary to divine law is sinful. 
Therefore, if slavery be contrary to the law, it would 
be sinful to tolerate it. Mr. Crooks is very far from 
being an abolitionist, but I cannot understand his 
logic. 

Mr. Crooks' strongly intimates that my article 
was full of storm and bluster, and that I attempted 
to carry my point by "storm and bluster." "Bluster" 
12 



134 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

is to roar, as a storm, to bully, to puff. "Storm" is 
a little different — it is a tempest, a commotion of 
the elements, assault on a fortified place, tumult, 
violence, vehemence, tumultuous force. I do not 
think there is anything of that kind in the article ; 
if there is, I did not mean it. If I had had the 
advantages of an education like my friend Eev. Mr. 
Crooks, perhaps I should be able to write without 
making any impression on my readers. But as I 
never went to school but a very few months, there- 
fore I am not sufficiently acquainted with language 
to be able to combat with an opponent without 
making him feel what I say. Webster's Speller, 
the Primer, the English Eeader, and Bennett's 
Arithmetic, were almost the only books used in those 
days where I was educated ; and the teachers, per- 
haps, could not pronounce twenty words correctly 
in the whole English language. The general im- 
pression among the old folks was, that any know- 
ledge of books beyond being able barely to read 
and cipher to the single rule of three, would be 
certain ruin ta the scholars. Therefore, I must be 
excused for stating things plain and pointed, so as 
to be understood. If I was well versed in etymology 
and English grammar I might become so "human- 
ized" that I could find sufficient language, and roll 
my words up so finely, softly, and beautifully, that the 
reader would be so struck with my language, so 
exquisitely beautiful, that my hearers or readers 
would never know what I was talking or writing 
about. St. Paul was very pointed and plain. And 
our Lord was even more so. Matt, xxiii. 33. "Ye 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 135 

serpents, ye generation of vipers ! how can ye escape 
the damnation of hell." Bro. Crooks, I don't think 
I have said anything in the article I sent you for 
publication more severe than the above. Why did 
he speak so severe to the Scribes and Pharisees? 
Because they had become so hardened in iniquity, 
that he knew they could not be touched in any 
other way. Just so I think of the abolitionist ; yea, 
they are even worse than the Scribes and Pharisees, 
for they made no pretensions of love to our Lord, 
but the abolitionists do. They profess to be his dis- 
ciples, and preachers of his gospel; and yet they 
denounce his precepts, and steal their neighbor's 
property, and lie to hide it. They are traitors to 
the government of God, and of the United States, 
and deserve to be called a generation of vipers and 
serpents just as much as the Scribes and Pharisees, 
and to be hanged as much as old John Brown did. 

I will now close this chapter, by saying to Mr. 
Crooks, that I will not write another article for pub- 
lication in the " Methodist" until I am so humanized 
by the Bible that I can write without "storm" or 
"bluster." I could have made many other quota- 
tions from the Bible which would prove that slavery 
was not only common in the Holy Scriptures, but 
as completely endorsed as any other practice, occu- 
pation, or ownership, that was foretold and author- 
ized by the prophets, apostles, and believers in them, 
and I think I have give'n enough for any candid man, 
and we must not forget, that whatever the prophets 
or apostles said or foretold had no more power to 
produce or affect what was foretold than we have to 



136 AFEICAN SLAVERY. 

produce such effects. Noah's declaration that Canaan 
should be a slave did not make him a black heathen. 
But the power that enabled him to foresee the flood, 
and foretell it, effected the curse alike in both cases. 
Yours, very truly, 

John Bell Kobixson, 

Feb. 28, 1861. 

LETTER II. 

Are the Africans capable of Self-government? Or can 
they be made so? If not, ought they to be Free? 

Messrs. Editors: It is conceded by all men, 
everywhere, that happiness is the chief object of the 
human race throughout the earth. Happiness is 
what every man desires. Ungodly men are selfish, 
and care not for the pleasures of others, and will 
extort, by craft or even force, to reduce their neigh- 
bors, and rob them even of their natural as well as 
their lawful rights to increase their own store of 
happiness. Godly men desire happiness just as 
much as the avaricious, but they desire to see their 
neighbors as happy as themselves, and they will use 
every righteous means to make them so. Their 
philanthropy reaches not only to their neighbors 
(though to them first), but to the happiness of their 
State, their nation, and then to the whole world; 
and they are ready to give out of their substance, 
whether it be great or small, a portion to advance 
the happiness of the human family in every part of 
the world, beginning at their homes, which are their 
godly rights, and then those nearest to them, and the 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 137 

next ; and so on their philanthropy spreads over the 
whole world. Philanthropy is very popular; there- 
fore there is a large amount of false philanthropy in 
the world, and even in the Christian church. Ava- 
rice knows no bounds ; stops not even at human life. 
Happiness does not consist in the greatest amount a 
man has, but in the manner in which he uses it. 
Alexander the Great conquered the world, and then 
was tormented the balance of his days because there 
were no more worlds for him to conquer. John 
Jacob Astor or Stephen Girard was a thousand 
times more unhappy than the southern slaves ; there- 
fore it is not the greater amount that a man has that 
makes him happy, but the condition he keeps his 
mind in, and the cultivation of his disposition for 
enjoyment. Freedom is sought for as a source of 
happiness ; but an unlimited freedom would be death 
to all human happiness. Fanatics, and bad, ava- 
ricious men, desire and seek for unlimited means 
and unbounded liberty to satisfy their avaricious 
cravings and their fanatical ideas of freedom. The 
Garrisonian abolitionists seem to have but one idea 
of happiness, and that is universal liberty or free- 
dom of the human race. With them that idea swal- 
lows up all others without the slightest respect to 
circumstances, 'Conditions, races, or capability. The 
only happiness they seem to think of or seek for is 
the universal freedom of the African negroes in this 
country and the placing them on an equality with 
the white man. St. Paul was one of the greatest 
and most amiable philanthropists that ever lived, 
and had but one superior in human shape, and that 
12* 



138 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

was our Saviour. Our Lord sanctioned no liberty 
as being Christian but civil or constitutional liberty, 
and said that the powers that be are ordained of 
God. St. Paul adhered strictly to this doctrine with 
all the other sacred teachers, and exhorted the mas- 
ter and his slave, the husband and his wife, the child 
and parent, all, in the same language, to respect each 
other's civil rights, and used the strongest language 
to impress this sacred duty upon the minds of all 
his hearers, and was even more impressive to the 
slave or bond-servant than to the others, and told 
him that by his obedience to his master he did the 
will of his heavenly Father. Liberty is one of the 
most dangerous blessings ever bestowed upon man- 
kind, and yet the sweetest, and therefore it has been 
limited with all, and trusted to but few, of the human 
race. 

God seemed to have set this country apart for the 
purpose of showing kings, despots, and monarchs, 
that the white race are capable of self-government, 
and that this constitutional liberty was conditionally 
intrusted even to "We, the people" of the United 
States, and that is, we must respect each other's con- 
stitutional rights without condition, or there can be 
no real civil or constitutional liberty. A libertine 
is opposed to all restraint by law or otherwise upon 
himself, and cares nothing for the rights of others. 
Abolitionists advocate the freedom of all men, with- 
out the slightest respect to their capability for self- 
government or usefulness in the world, or the safety 
of the rights of others. They declare that the Afri- 
can slave was included in the Declaration of our 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 139 

fathers when they said " We, the people." This brings 
ns up to the question of the competency or safety of 
the negro race to mingle in the Government of the 
United States. 

I say the African is unfit, and, therefore, would be 
unsafe, even if admissible, to take any part in this 
government, either municipal or general. ISTo people 
are fit for self-government, or to mingle with " the 
people" in government, who are generally inclined to 
idle, lazy, and dissipated habits. I think I am as 
well acquainted with the habits and nature of the 
negro as most men. I have spent about twenty-six 
years of my time in the slave States, and twenty- 
eight years in the free States. No man, I presume, 
feels a greater degree of sympathy for the African 
race in the United States than I do. They have 
always been objects of pity to my mind; and I de- 
sire here to apologize for a remark I made in my 
feeble speech, on the 23d ult., at the great mass meet- 
ing in the Statehouse Yard, when I spoke of them 
as " stinking negroes." It was a slip of the tongue 
under excitement, and it was not said out of any ill 
will to the negroes. I do not blame them for the 
troubles we are now in with our southern brethren. 
They have had no agency in the terrible calamities 
that now surround us. Hypocrites and infidels have 
plunged us into this ungodly war with our own race 
and kinsmen, under a feigned love for the poor, un- 
fortunate Africans, that they may the sooner destroy 
them ; for no man, having a proper Christian sym- 
pathy for them, would advocate their freedom in 
this country. The negro race is not fit for self- 



140 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

government. They are incapable, in this country 
and all others, to manage a government as a republic, 
or even partly so. I know we are told that they 
have been kept down by being made slaves to the 
white people. This, at a glance, might seem to be 
so ; but when we come to look at the whole black 
race, here and elsewhere, we shall see that slavery 
has not degraded the African, but greatly elevated 
him in the scale of civilization and the domestic and 
social relations of this life ; while, on the other hand, 
freedom has, as a general thing, degraded and hea- 
thenized the African race in all parts of the world. 

There is an experiment now undergoing a trial on 
the coast of Africa, called the Liberian Colony, of 
some promise, which has my warmest sympathies 
and strongest desires that it may prove a complete 
success, and redound to the glory of God and the 
complete freedom and civilization of all the descen- 
dants of Canaan on the face of the globe, But I 
confess that this hope is without warrant in sacred 
prophecy; for there is not the slightest hope of 
supremacy, or even of temporal freedom, for the Ca- 
naanites in this world given in the sacred Scriptures. 
I may discuss the moral question of slavery, if 
agreeable to you, hereafter; but the fitness of the 
negro for universal freedom, and his claims for 
equality with " We, the people" are all I propose to 
discuss under the heading of these articles. 

What are the natural habits, disposition, or ambi- 
tion of the African race in this country ? 

^heir habits are laziness and negligence. They 
will not work, if they can help it, under any circum- 



AFRICAN" SLAVERY. 141 

stances, except to prevent starvation. They cannot 
be made to think of any wants beyond the present, 
and will not provide for the future. When they, by 
chance, make a dollar, they at once cease work until 
it is gone. They will not labor for wages, if they 
can get food without it, and they will undergo any 
amount of suffering by deprivation rather than en- 
gage at constant manual labor for the comforts of 
this life. I am told this is because they are kept 
down by the prejudice of color, slavery, and other 
wickedness of the white people. This I deny as 
being generally true. There are instances, no doubt, 
of such oppression. To prove my assertion I will 
give a single case that I know to be true, with 
names and location, and will hold myself ready to 
prove that it is a complete illustration of nineteen- 
twentieths of all the free negroes in this country. 

My father was a farmer in Prime-Hook ISTeck, 
Cedar Creek Hundred, Sussex County, Delaware. 
He owned a negro woman named Mill. She was an 
excellent slave. David Hazzard, Esq., a merchant 
and farmer, who lived at Milton, about four miles 
distant, and still lives there, owned a slave named 
Jacob. Jacob and Mill got married, and "Jacob 
usually came to see his wife on Saturday afternoon 
and remained until Monday morning. My father 
was at Milton one day, when Mr. Hazzard proposed 
to him that if he would set Mill free, he (Mr. H.) 
would set Jake free. My father agreed to it on the 
spot. The arrangement was effected at once, and 
their freedom lawfully established. They, while 
slaves, were sober and useful to their masters : but 



142 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

as soon as the knot was slipped that bound them to 
their masters, a change was apparent. Jake at once 
left his home, and came to my father's and took a 
seat by his beloved companion, and there they 
basked in the pleasures of this life — both ceasing to 
labor, but not to live. My father finally told them 
they must get themselves a house and take care of 
themselves, and told Jake that if he would go and 
choose a lot near the cedar swamp, by an old apple 
orchard, he should have an acre of ground, and he 
would lend him tools and teams, and give him the 
timber to build himself a good house. The reply 
was, " Sank you, Mass John, I do 'em." Jake took 
an axe on his shoulder and started for the cedar 
swamp, or woods, as he had his choice, to cut enough 
for his house complete and to pay for sawing, as the 
mills sawed timber on shares, and one less than a 
mile distant. Jake spent the day in chopping away 
the bushes around the large cedar trees ; but that 
was all he did that day, except to make up his mind 
that it would be labor to fell the trees and get them 
to the mill. He came back, and father asked him how 
he was getting along. " Oh, good, Mass John." The 
next day he took his axe and started off full speed ; 
but instead of going to cut the timber he went to 
John Smith's mills to see about the sawing. There 
he found a large pile of oak slabs that were useless 
to the owner, and asked Mr. Smith to give them to 
him to build his house. His request was granted, 
and back he came for the team to haul them. After 
that was done he commenced his building operations, 
and the first thing he did was the digging of a 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 143 

trench around the size lie wanted his house, which 
was about twelve feet square, and dug about eighteen 
inches deep, and cut his slabs off; with an axe, about 
nine feet long, and sat them in the trench around, 
leaving them about seven feet and a half high, and 
leaving an opening for a door, but no window. He 
peaked them up at the ends for the pitch of the roof. 
He then put a pole across for the ridge, and laid 
poles the other way for rafters, and covered them 
with brush for laths and oak-leaves for shingles, and 
begged some cullen boards at the mill, out of which 
he made a door, and cut the soles out of a pair of 
old shoes for the hinges, and nailed them on with cut 
nails. He had no chimney or fire-place, but left a 
hole open in the roof to let the smoke out. He laid 
slabs in one corner, with the flat side up, on cross 
pieces, for a bed, which, I believe, never had any- 
thing on them but an old ragged quilt to soften the 
oak slabs. The dining-table was made in about the 
same style, and out of the same material. They 
built their fire at one end, on the ground, and piled 
dirt against the slabs to keep them from taking fire. 
Oak leaves were plenty in the woods, and he could 
patch his roof at any time ; but when the snow came, 
with a strong wind, it would be nearly as deep in- 
side as out. His chairs and shelving were all of 
rough oak slabs; and there they commenced life 
together. My mother gave them some bed-clothes 
and a little assortment of the necessary articles for 
housekeeping, and I believe Governor Hazzard did 
the same. They at this time were each about twen- 
ty-four years of age. That was forty-four years 



144 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

ago, and there they live until this day, and have 
raised several children in that miserable smoke- 
house, not half as good as my mother's hen-house for 
an in-dwelling for human beings. I suppose there 
is scarcely a piece of wood in the house now that 
was first put there, the entire house being replaced 
time and again with patches. I believe his acre of 
ground has never been sufficiently fenced to keep 
the cattle and hogs out of the house, as the single 
door of the house has had to be kept constanly open, 
winter and summer, for light, there being no window 
in the establishment. 

Jacob had worked at hewing house frames for his 
master while a slave ; # but my father offered him 
white oak timber enough to saw him a frame, and 
to pay for sawing, if he would' cut the trees, and ce- 
dar trees enough for siding and shelving, and to pay 
for sawing, and his board until he should get it 
finished ; but he was too lazy to embrace the oppor- 
tunity to make himself and family comfortable for a 
long life ; and there they still live in that miserable 
hut, not even fit for reptiles of the lowest grade. 
The last time I saw them, their eyes looked to be 
almost completely smoke-dried out. If they had 
built the right kind of a house, their old masters 
would have furnished it and made them comfortable; 
but, instead of that, they have dragged out a mise- 
rable existence, for about forty-five years, in smoke, 
filth, and deprivations of the worst kind. 

This is a strong figure, but nevertheless true, and 
it is an average case of a vast majority of all free 
negroes in the world. The only idea of freedom 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 145 

they have is to live without labor, which I shall 
undertake to prove in next week's number. 

Now, do you not think that Jacob and Mill would 
have seen a thousand times more pleasure had they 
remained slaves until this day? Only look at it 
without prejudice against the only place designed 
for that race in this world among the white race. 

LETTER III. 

In a former article I stated a few facts on the 
capability or fitness of the African race for freedom 
and self-government, under a republican form like 
ours. I now proceed to give further evidence of 
their unfitness for freedom and equality with H We, 
the people." 

I gave a short history of a single family who were 
set free by their master, who believed they would do 
well, from the fact that they were both such superior 
servants. They could not have been made to believe 
that the end of their servitude would be the end of 
their usefulness and happiness in the world; yet, 
notwithstanding the great confidence that all had in 
them, it was so. And so it has been with nineteen- 
twentieths of all that have been or ever will be set 
free. 

The Eev. Mr. , of South Carolina, owned a 

large number of slaves and a large plantation. He 
became dissatisfied with the business, as he was an 
itinerating Methodist preacher, and finally made up 
his mind to give them (the slaves) the plantation, and 
rid himself of the responsibility and vexation, and 
13 



146 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

give himself entirely up to his holy and favorite 
calling, the preaching of the Gospel. He was advised 
of his fatal error, but had such an unlimited confi- 
dence in all his slaves that he could not be made to 
believe that they would prove faithless and betray 
their trust. As they had been so faithful to him in 
all things, he consummated the arrangement, and 
took his leave for an unlimited time, a year being 
the time of each engagement. He had not been 
gone long before he received letters from old neigh- 
bors, advising him that things about his plantation 
were changing very fast, and not for the better; but 
he thought it was a mere prejudice against his 
scheme of freeing his slaves, it being the only plan 
by which it could be done, for the master had to 
appear as their owner at law, or they would be taken 
up and sold by the sheriff to the highest bidder. 
He paid no attention to the first letter, nor to the 
second nor third; but within a year he received 
such information as fully satisfied him that he was 
in danger, and made up his mind to repair to his 
former home; for his neighbors informed him that 
unless he speedily returned and took charge of his 
negroes he would have damages enough to pay to 
take all his negroes and plantation too, several of 
them being already in prison for plundering their 
neighbors' plantations. When he arrived he found 
the plantation completely swept of poultry, hogs, 
and cattle ; even the work oxen and cows had been 
killed and eaten up, or sold for rum. His fencing 
and outhouses were demolished and used for fire- 
wood, and even the farming utensils were mostly 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 147 

burnt up, and lie found himself a ruined man, for 
lie was answerable for all the damages to his neigh- 
bors. They started fair in the spring and planted 
the crops, but that was the end of their ambition 
and enterprise, their only idea of freedom being to 
eat, drink, sleep, and nothing else. 

Many similar experiments have been tried in all 
the southern States with similar results. 

I am told this was owing to their being under 
laws that were prejudicial to their freedom: yet 
nineteen-twentieths, if not the ninety-nirJfe hun- 
dredths of all the slaves who have been freed have 
resulted in evil to the liberated negro, and has 
brought them into disrepute and to want, and made 
them a dead weight to society and a clog to the 
wheels of general prosperity; for the free negroes 
have never paid their way in this country, nor never 
■will. Their Maker never intended them for rulers 
or leaders in this nation, nor in any way to be placed 
on an equality with "We, the people;" and no true 
Christian who can read the Word of God will ever 
advocate the universal emancipation of -the negroes in 
this country, and their equality with the people of the 
United States ; nor will any true Constitutional Union 
man who has had opportunities to know the nature of 
the African negro, and made use of them, as it was his 
duty to do, wish them freed and placed on an equality 
with the rulers of this land. 

ISTow let us see if the case I gave last week, and 
the above, was owing to the laws of the slave States 
in which they occurred. 

In 1819, if I forget not, two thousand acres of 



148 AFRICAN - SLAVERY. 

land was procured in Brown County, Ohio, on which 
four hundred negroes were placed, and made the 
legal owners of the property. In a very short time, 
says the Cincinnati Gazette, "they became too lazy 
to play." Their vicious, lazy, thieving habits was 
so apparent that the neighbor's became much 
alarmed ; and efforts to remove them was strongly 
talked of. The depredations and criminal law suits 
of that spot, was nearly equal to the whole county 
outside of that colony. The farmers for miles 
around could, nor cannot, keep any portable valua- 
bles unless they put them under lock and key at 
night. And these depredations have increased from 
the beginning of that colony even more than the 
increase of the population of the negroes, and the 
whole colony abounds in filth, stench, licentiousness, 
laziness, theft, drunkenness, debauchery, rags, and 
profanity ; and they are of no use in the neighbor- 
hood whatever, but a dead weight and a great curse 
to all the people for miles around. An Ohio senator 
spoke of them as follows : — 

"The black settlement in Brown County was 
made in 1819, the original number located there 
being four hundred and twenty, for whom about 
two thousand acres of land were procured. From 
the commencement there has been no improvement 
in their morals or social habits. Idleness and vice 
are the prevailing concomitants. The cost of crimi- 
nal prosecutions has been very large in proportion 
to the number of inhabitants, and keeps up a pro- 
portionate average with their increase. In the 
vicinity of this settlement there is not a family 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 149 

within two miles who are not kept in constant dread 
of depredations or injury of some sort. Every 
valuable that can be removed is stolen. They are 
absolutely compelled to confine themselves to what 
is merely necessary to support life, for anything 
beyond from hand to mouth, must inevitably fall a 
prey to lurking vagrants, who, far worse than a gang 
of gypsies, are hovering around seeking literally 
what they may devour. And this state of things is 
not confined to any section alone ; it extends in a 
greater or less degree wherever this class of the 
population is permanently located." 

Now this is in the great free State of Ohio, where 
the shackles of slavery has never been known. And 
I believe Brown County is, or was, a great abolition 
county. And yet this terrible state of things has 
been produced by the presence of this small colony 
of the black race there. I ask, that if four hundred 
and twenty in a neighborhood has produced such a 
state of society, what would four thousand do in a 
neighborhood, all being free. And suppose further ; 
that there was one free negro in that State for 
every five or six white people, what would be the 
condition of things in that great State ? It cannot 
be said that they have not an equal chance in Brown 
County to prosper and be improved. The fact is, 
the negroes have never made a particle of improve- 
ment in a state of freedom. There is not one single 
spot on the globe that has been in any way im- 
proved by them only in a state of slavery. They 
have never been of any use to the world, or to 
human society, except as slaves, not even to them- 
13* 



150 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

selves. But as slaves they have been very useful 
to the whole civilized world, and no people have 
been . more useful of the same number. But that 
moment you free them ; their usefulness ceases. If 
this is not so, tell me where and when it was not. 
Show me one spot on the earth where they have 
been of any benefit to themselves or any body else, 
except in the Liberian Colony, which I admit pro- 
duces a slight promise. But did they, through their 
own enterprise, make the discovery, and try the ex- 
periment ? You know they did not, nor had they 
any hand in it. But it was started by white mis- 
sionaries from other countries. It was soon discovered 
that white men could not live there long enough to 
do any good. And black men were taken as an ex- 
periment, and it was found that they lived, and had 
their health as well there, or even better than here. 
There seems to be providential reasons for be- 
lieving that that may be their place, and God may in- 
tend to raise them up»to some notice or usefulness in 
the world. But if African slavery had never had an 
existence in civilized states, the African colony could 
never have had an existence ; and if slavery should 
now be abolished in all civilized and Christian 
states in the world, and left free and equal, the 
whole Liberian colony will glide into barbarism in 
a short space of time; for you may depend, they 
will cease to immigrate to that country if freed and 
placed on an equality with "We, the people" here, 
and elsewhere. And when fresh accessions cease to 
arrive there from civilized and Christian states, that 
colony will be doomed to barbarism. I will not 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 151 

discuss the present prospects of that colony, only to 
say it is yet an experiment quite as much as it was 
at the beginning. I will say here, that whatever my 
opinions may be about the competency of Africans 
to govern, I am a friend of that experiment, and 
want it to go on to the end of time ; although God 
has not given the slightest encouragement on the 
pages of inspired prophecy for them to expect any 
honors as rulers, outside of slavery. 

But the Scriptures are totally silent on the sub- 
ject of their emancipation. It is not for me to say 
there is no hope for them for freedom in their own 
native Africa ; but I will say, there is no hope for 
them anywhere else in the world, and every attempt 
to raise them to authority will only make their con- 
dition incalculably worse than in slavery to southern 
masters. 

But I will say again, the southern slaves are the 
happiest class of people I have ever seen in all my 
travels in North, or South America or the West In- 
dies, and I believe they are the happiest people on 
the face of the globe, except where abolitionists have 
disturbed their peace, and twenty times more moral, 
civil, respectful, happy, and well behaved than any 
colony or state of free negroes I have ever seen. 

Now, if the African race in the United States have 
principles or fitness for self-government, how is it 
they have not shown it in some shape or form ? 
They have been here over two hundred and forty 
years, among the best men, and the best examples, 
and influences the sun has ever shone upon, and yet 
not the slightest appearance of fitness for rulers, 



152 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

leaders, or teachers lias been perceptible among 
them. If I am wrong, show me how, when, and 
where, and I will give in. Can any spot be found 
in the United States that has been improved by the 
free negroes locating thereupon ? Can you tell of 
a colony of them who have emigrated to the west- 
ern territories, to clear up the lands, to make them- 
selves permanent and comfortable homes ? Or has 
one ever done so? Where are they to be found, 
either many or few, taking the lead in any enter- 
prise of worth or hope, that would induce any man, 
or set of men, of common sense and moral worth to 
follow in their wake ? How many African negroes 
can there be found, who are free, that have had fore- 
thought enough to save up something for a rainy 
day ? Don't point out to me mulattoes and quad- 
roons ; I know some few of them have done so — 
but they are comparatively few and very far between. 
I know a great many negroes get themselves a house 
to live in; and what sort of a house is it when got? 
See the description of Jacob's house I described in 
my previous article, and you have a description of 
twenty-nine-thirtieths of all the houses got up by 
that class of persons. If you will investigate the 
subject without prejudice or favor, you will find that 
just so far as they depart from pure Anglo-Saxon 
blood, just in that ratio they lose the principles and 
qualifications for self-government. 

. It may be said that I have given a case that was 
originated while Brown County was a wild forest, 
and therefore the consequences occurred alluded to 
above. To show that this was not the case, I will 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 153 

give one more example that took place under the 
direction of the great apostle to negro freedom, Ger- 
ret Smith, of New York State : Gerret Smith, Esq., 
is a gentleman of talents, of respectability, and great 
wealth and uncommon liberality, and an abolitionist 
of the Garrisonian school. He had such an unlim- 
ited sympathy and confidence in the poor African 
that he determined to set them on their feet, that the 
world might see that they were fit to be classed with 
We, the people. And he, true to his principles, put 
his hand into his pocket to put the negroes where 
the world would see that the negroes were honest 
men. I am sorry that I cannot lay my hand on the 
history of this case, for it tells the story more vividly 
than any other. Mr. Smith purchased a large tract 
of land in western New York, large enough (if I 
forget not) for one thousand small farms (though I 
am not sure about the number), and deeded them in 
fee to that number of negroes, and gave each one a 
nice little start, and no doubt felt that he had done 
a good thing. But, to his great disappointment, in 
a very few years every farm passed out of their 
hands for provisions and rum ; and the condition of 
society was even worse than in Brown Co. colony, 
and Mr. Smith was compelled to concede that he 
had done them more hurt than good; for he had 
made a selection to take charge of those farms of the 
best and safest negroes in the State of New York. 

I do not say these things out of any ill will to the 
poor unfortunate negroes ; I am their friend, and 
would defend their civil and moral rights to the 
very death : but I must state facts just as they are, 



154 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

if the sky falls. No man can do them any good by 
saying what is not true, and in that way place them 
in a false position before the world ; this would, in 
the end, only degrade them the more. If abolition- 
ists would state facts with their apparent zeal for the 
poor negroes, they would do them great good ; but 
by stating falsehoods, and placing them in a false 
light before the ignorant, they have produced all the 
miseries and woes the poor Africans have ever been 
subjected to in this country. If all the ministers of 
the Christian Church had only have followed the ex- 
ample of their great exemplar, St. Paul, of the New 
Testament Scriptures, this whole nation would now 
abound in almost paradisiacal glory from one end to 
the other ; and the white people would this day be 
rejoicing from Maine to Florida, and from the Atlan- 
tic to the Pacific, and the slaves would be singing, 
shouting, and dancing all over the slave States, and 
brother would not now be at war with brother, and 
destroying each other worse even than hyenas. You 
may sum up all of our present calamities, hatreds, 
malice, and heart-burnings, and all, all are traceable 
to the preaching of abolition sermons in the sacred 
desk that was dedicated to the preaching of the glo- 
rious Gospel of God our Saviour. There is not a 
fire-eater nor a rebel in the south who is not the 
legitimate offspring of abolition Gospel preachers. 
They are the worst enemies the poor slaves ever had 
in this world. 

For an intimation of Egyptian bondage or ancient 
slavery of the negroes, I will refer the reader to an 
article in your last Saturday's issue, from the New 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 155 

York Journal of Commerce, 6tli page; it will pay for 
reading. The fact that the African never has made 
any improvement, or did any good outside of slavery, 
is to my mind a sufficient reason why he should not 
be set free. More on the subject next week. 

LETTER IV. 

In my two last communications I gave a gene- 
ral view of the condition and habits of the freed 
and free people of color in the United States. I 
would like now to give a general history of the 
slaves, bat I will only say here, that they are the 
happiest persons, as a class, that I have ever seen; 
and the stories of the cruel treatment by their mas- 
ters, as a general thing, is as false and slanderous as 
it would be to say the devil is a truthful and good 
spirit. Such stories have been invented by aboli- 
tionists and infidels to break up this great and glori- 
ous Christian government, because it had the impress 
of divine goodness and wisdom upon it. I have no 
doubt there are cases of bad treatment to slaves by 
some masters. But they are as few in ratio as such 
cruelties are in the free States, even to children by 
parents. And there are but few half so devilish as 
a large amount of treatment to apprentice and servant 
girls in our northern cities. But I will proceed 
yftth the free negroes. 

I was in New Granada, South America, in 1856, 
where the negroes have not only their universal 
freedom, but the reins of government exclusively 
in their hands. I will give a short account of the 



156 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

condition of things in that State across the Isthmus 
to the ancient city of Panama. I say ancient be- 
cause it took its start in the early days of the settle- 
ment of South America by Spain. There is no 
State in the world that excels the State of New 
Granada in a fertile and productive soil. They have 
no winter frost or chilling winds to impede agricul- 
tural pursuits. And it would excel the richest 
parts of North America in the super-abundance of 
every product except wheat and rye. There is no 
country on the globe that would pay the farmer or 
planter better than that country. It abounds in all 
that is good, even the precious metals. There are no 
seasons, but it is one perpetual season. It matters 
but little what time of the year planting is done. 
Two crops of corn per year could be raised off of 
the same ground, and plenty of time between to 
% clear off the soil. Most of the fruit trees are always 
in bloom, and have fruit on them in every stage 
from the blossom to the ripe fruit. Sugar cane 
grows spontaneously, and wherever it formerly got 
a hold, it still holds the soil, and its growth is so 
powerful that it overruns everything else, and holds 
the soil supreme. " And, perhaps, there is not better 
cane in the whole world, and stands so thick that a 
rabbit would have great trouble to make his way 
through it. In short, there is no State on the face 
of the globe that offers superior advantages to the 
planter or farmer. 

And, notwithstanding all this, there is not one 
acre of ground in the entire State of New Granada 
in any condition of cultivation that I ever saw. 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 157 

They plant in some places (I know) among the 
bramble and bushes, but cultivation is not known. 
I saw but one lot of corn there in all my travels, and 
I walked over that with the greatest difficulty. 
The bramble and undergrowth was so great that I 
could seldom reach ground with my feet. They 
planted the corn without hoe, spade, or plow ; they 
reached their arms down through the bramble and 
undergrowth, and scratched the corn under the 
ground with their fingers without the slightest order, 
leaving an indefinite number of grains in a hill, 
say five to ten ; and that is the last time they see it 
until they go to gather the corn. It grows up 
through the bramble and bushes to an enormous 
height, with slim stock, not larger than a man's 
thumb, and each stock bears a nubben of corn two 
or three inches long. And when they gather the 
corn, they pull up the stocks, and replant at the 
same time. 

That country was under the government of Spain 
about three hundred years, and has been in the 
hands of negroes I believe nearly forty years. 

I never saw a road in the State, that a mule could 
travel safely on, nor a cart road outside of the 
villages. 

The appearance of many abandoned plantations 
are yet visible all over the State, and everything 
like industry has disappeared; but not one single 
vestige is apparent in any part of the State except 
in the seaport towns, by white men. In fact, every- 
thing has sunk to ruin, total ruin, since the negroes 
were emancipated and took possession of the govern- 
14 



158 AFKICAN SLAVERY. » 

ment, and that State, with its rich fertile soil, is 
almost a total loss to the world. 

The inhabitants are so low in the moral scale and 
civilization that their condition is indescribably low. 
There are some foreign quadroons about the larger 
seaport towns that do better ; but even these have 
no right to claim a place in civilization. A majority 
of the inhabitants all over the State are of mixed 
breed, but in every case the -whites have been re- 
duced to the level of the negro, and booth together 
into the vats of all abominations. There is not one 
particle of ambition or enterprise among them ; they 
neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are 
one continual mass of licentiousness and vulgarity. 
They even all go naked at almost all times, even to 
church (for they are all professing Christians). The 
women and men strip themselves together to bathe, 
and any number can be seen walking and standing 
together on the rocks, high and dry, in a perfect 
state of nudity. They are as the beasts of the field, 
without shame or modesty. They have no sympathy 
for their offspring. 

The few white people that have been born there 
are as high above them in intelligence and all moral 
requirements for respectability as it is possible for 
one set of men to be above another. You will hear 
them talking about State affairs, and lamenting over 
the condition of society, the great chances of pros- 
perity, the immense wealth in their soil, and how 
rich they could be in a short time if they could 
work in the sun, but they cannot ; neither can the 
mulatto; nor would he if he could. He is more 



< AFRICAN SLAVERY. 159 

delicate than the white man. But the negro, who is 
improved and strengthened by labor in the sun in 
that climate, will not now, nor never did, nor never 
will work without a master ; and unless that great 
country shall be reduced to negro slavery under the 
pure white, that rich and alluvial soil is not only 
now lost, but will be through all time to come, un- 
less God shall change that climate to suit our nature, 
or the principles, spirits, ambition, and enterprise of 
the negro to that of the white man, without changing 
his nature, that is now suited to the torrid zone of 
the world only. 

I know the quadroons or mixed breeds are a much 
better people than the negroes, but they are alto- 
gether inadequate to successfully maintain a repub- 
lican form of government, and hardly a government 
of any kind. They are nearly all very treacherous, 
and not worthy of trust. I wish some of our abo- 
litionists would go down to that country and spend 
six months among the negroes ; I think they would 
hesitate some time, if they had a trust to give out, 
to decide which they would bestow it upon, the 
monkeys or the negroes. Let them see the Jamaica 
negroes at Aspinwall, who have gone there to get 
clear of wholesome, lawful restraint, and I think 
they will never want to behold another free negro, 
much less to have them on an equality with " We, the 
people" of the United States. 

Now those were raised on the Island of Jamaica ; 
they were born free, and some of them can read, 
write, and speak English, Spanish, and some French. 

I will close this article with a short account of 



160 AFRICAN SLAVERY. * 

what I saw of free negroes at and about Kingston, 
Jamaica, from where many of the pure negroes have 
gone to New Granada, South America. I have often 
been referred by abolitionists to the glorious effects 
of emancipation in the Island of Jamaica, and even 
told by some that the emancipated slaves soon be- 
came the ruling spirits of the island, and that they 
were at the head of all good. It is true, they are 
lawfully on an equality with the white people, but 
in appearance, and all, all of the requisites for pros- 
perity and government, are as far beneath the white 
people as the earth is beneath the heavens. "Were 
it not for the standing army and the British bay- 
onets that glitter in that sunny clime at all times, 
the whites, ere this, would have been exterminated, 
if it had been in the power of the negroes to have 
done so. The negroes are somewhat better there 
than in South America, but it is owing entirely to 
the strict wholesome laws and the British soldiers 
that can be seen at all times patrolling. 

Since the negroes were set free by an act of Par- 
liament, in 1833, they have sunk down to the lowest 
depths of degradation that is possible under good 
restraining laws. They will not work for wages; 
in consequence of which a great many of the best 
plantations on the island have been abandoned, or 
turned into grazing farms. The stories of any im- 
provement whatever there, by the emancipation act, 
is as false as the declaration of the serpent to Eve, 
when he said " Thou shalt not surely die." If the 
English government could have it to do over again, 
the negroes would never be made free by the laws 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 161 

of that nation. Many of the leading journals of 
Great Britain have been warning us for years to be 
careful how we take any further steps towards the 
emancipation of the slaves of this country, and refer 
us to the ruined condition of that island by emanci- 
pation, and the complete degradation and entire ruin 
of the negroes there. 

Some of the quadroons do better than the negroes, 
and a few of them own small plantations ; but no 
such thing is to be found among the negroes ; they 
are a dead weight to progress. It was an experiment 
when the emancipation bill passed. The English 
people thought they would work for wages, and 
therefore it would be altogether better for the planter 
to hire his labor than to own it; but the sequel 
proved the sad mistake when too late. 

It would have been a thousand times better for us 
if there never had been a free negro in this (that was 
a) glorious land. The whole civilized world have 
been paying the penalty of British emancipation 
ever since it took place, in high prices of the pro- 
ducts of the British West India Islands, and the 
partial emancipation of the slaves in this country. 
If universal emancipation should be effected here, 
woe be unto us, and the slaves too. 

LETTER Y. 

In my first two articles I portrayed the principles, 

disposition, nature, pride, and ambition of the negro 

race in this country. In my third, that of the same 

race in South America and the Island of Jamaica. 

14* 



162 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

The facts I have given ought not to require any 
application by me, and will not by those who are 
truly constitutional union men, and do not value the 
emancipation (and, by that, the degradation and ruin 
of the entire black race in this country), more than 
the liberties and prosperity of " We, the people." I 
say I have given the true character of the free ne- 
groes wherever they may be found on the face of 
this globe. Taking this in comparison with the 
great usefulness of that race while slaves, ought to 
satisfy every good man that they were destined for 
slaves or bond-servants, and nothing else. 

Though God has not declared anywhere in his 
revelation that they never are to be free, yet in Lev. 
xxv. 46, he says to their masters that they shall be 
their inheritance, and their children's forever ; which 
I have shown in the two chapters on the moral ques- 
tion of slavery. As I have said, there seems to be 
some encouragement for them in Liberia, on the 
coast of Africa. And if they ever are to have free- 
dom, it will be there and nowhere else. But while 
they remain among white people, they are to be 
slaves, or they will be in a far worse condition ; and 
any nation who shall attempt to free them, and place 
them on an equality with the "people," will be made 
to suffer just to the extent they shall do that wicked 
act. See the effect on Mexico, Central America, New 
Granada, and all the British, French, and Spanish 
provinces. While the two or three former have suf- 
fered by constant revolutions and civil commotions 
for allowing an equality with that race, the latter 
have suffered the loss of three-fourths of the products 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 163 

of those provinces ; and, in addition to that, they have 
been compelled to keep a stronger standing army to 
keep the negroes in their place, and have had to pay 
double price for all the products of those islands that 
require constant agricultural labor to bring them 
forth, because the negroes will not engage in useful 
pursuits and manual labor when free, and there- 
fore they are of no use in the world, but a dead 
weight upon the prosperity and happiness of any 
nation which shall venture in such a forbidden path. 

Look at the present condition of the free people of 
color all over this country. See them in this city, 
where we have about thirty thousand. If you have 
never looked into the question, I think you will be 
perfectly satisfied that they would be better off in 
slavery, even if the institution is as bad as Wendell 
Phillips says it is. You will not find two thousand 
out of the thirty doing anything for a livelihood. 
And even most of these are engaged in pursuits that 
are of no use to the general prosperity of the city 
whatever, and the balance are far worse than no 
account. 

What are we as a nation and "the people" now 
suffering for attempting to lay violent hands upon 
the institution of slavery? I will say again (and 
hope it may never be forgotten by the reader), that 
whenever universal freedom to the negroes shall be 
established in this country, our Constitutional Union 
with our liberties will end, and the judgments of God 
will rest upon us, perhaps through all time to come. 
You may laugh me to scorn for this idea. No doubt 
Adam thought it a very small matter to taste a deli- 



164 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

cious fruit from a tree that he had to prune and dress 
that he was forbidden to eat by his Creator, yet see 
the effect upon the whole human family. If Adam 
had kept that simple little command, we should now 
all be one race and one people, and there would 
have been no negroes, nor abolitionists, or any other 
pest on the face of the globe, not even death. Bo 
careful ; " God will not" always " be mocked." 

But some men tell me that slavery is wrong, and 
must be abolished, irrespective of consequences to 
either race. That it is our duty to free them, and 
allow them to become our equals in all the relations 
of this life. For, say they, we were all " created equal" 
and therefore are all one flesh and blood. And we 
must loose their bonds, and let them go free. 
"When the dangers of emancipation are pointed out 
some of those saints say, let them go to the devil, we 
have nothing to do with that ; others say, we will 
drive them all out of the country, and if they at- 
tempt to resist, we will exterminate them all. Now 
those are some of the men who have such great con- 
scientious scruples about slavery ; even so great, that 
they say, rather than it shall not be destroyed, let 
our great government be broken up, and a monarchy 
established or anarchy reign through all time. Now, . 
we are all equally interested in this matter, whether 
we were born and live in a free or slave State. Our 
destinies for all time are at stake alike. The people of 
Maine and Florida will suffer the same. We are all 
one people, and are equally responsible for whatever 
may come upon us. Therefore let us reason to- I 
getter, and look this matter fair in the face. If we 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 165 

stick to our fanaticism, and refuse to weigh the facts 
that can be seen and understood by every man, just 
so sure as we do not do this, just so sure we shall be 
overthrown, and our glory will be taken from us 
and given to some other land. 

God has«given us that unfortunate race, that they 
might be made useful to the whole civilized world. 
They were first brought to this country while we 
belonged to Great Britain, and there is no room to 
doubt that God designed it, for every circumstance 
proves this idea. And it was done to bring that 
race into usefulness, in the only way it could be 
done. It is wonderful that any man who has read 
their history, both sacred and profane, cannot see 
this, for our Creator commanded that every man 
should live by the sweat of his brow. The meaning 
of this is, no one will doubt, that every man should 
toil in some form for the fruits of life, and without 
it, no man was entitled to the " penny." 

I have shown unmistakably, that the African race 
are a dead weight on society, and a nuisance in the 
world, in a state of freedom. If this is not so, 
everywhere (outside of Liberia, which is yet barely 
an exception, if an exception at all), then I hope 
some one will show us where it is, and in what part 
of the world, and how. I know there are some 
individuals who do better than others, where they 
are surrounded by influences so powerful that they 
cannot resist them. But show us a community 
of colored people away from the powerful influ- 
ences of the watchful perseverance of the enter- 
prising whites, who have set one single example, 



166 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

that would be safe for us to imitate. What have 
they clone in the world that has been of any benefit 
to mankind? Where and when have they by 
companies, formed colonies to clear up the land in 
our western wilds, or even on the frontier of any 
State, and made themselves comfortable homes, and 
by that produced anything beyond their own wants, 
or even half that amount ? Now take a survey 
from Maine to Florida, and from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, and show us the group or colony who have 
done any good for mankind, or have exhibited the 
slightest enterprise? Where are their inventions 
of useful implements, of husbandry, or any of the 
mechanical arts? Where are they found leading 
their hosts of workmen in any of the trades, or 
manufacturing operations of this life, or any of the 
useful arts and sciences? Now, without one cir- 
cumstance to show their fitness for self-government, 
or to mingle with our rulers, or even to take care of 
themselves under the most wholesome laws that 
mankind ever was blessed with, where all their 
rights are fully protected, they having equal access 
for that purpose, with us, to all the courts of justice, 
ought we to set them free, or ought they to be 
free, while they are so exceedingly useful in a 
state of slavey ? Was it not madness* in us to 
plunge ourselves headlong in this the most ungodly 
of all wars which have preceded it since the founda- 
tion of the world was laid? No, none has been 
more terrible, more heart rending, or more wicked, 
and all, all because of an opposition to the just and 
wise arrangements of the 'great Jehovah to govern 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 167 

his people, as seemeth him good. I know some will 
laugh at this idea, especially some of those who, it 
was intended by the Great Spirit, should unite all 
hearts, and cement them by diffusing his own ever- 
lasting love among the people. But, alasl they 
have forgotten the pit from which they were taken, 
and by whom, and for what purpose, and let false 
sympathy and fanaticism take possession of their 
hearts, instead of that unadulterated love that makes 
a man justified in whatever position of usefulness he 
may be called to in this life. And instead of preach- 
ing Jesus Christ and him crucified, they recommend 
their hearers to go forth and exterminate eight 
millions of white people to change or destroy the 
relation of master and slave (that it is in the order 
of God), that the negro may be the white man's 
equal, which is clearly forbidden in his Great Book, 
which I have already proven. 

I wrote this and the three previous articles for the 
Press, but concluded to withhold them for this book. 
I have written these mostly on my own knowledge 
of the facts given. I shall now publish a chapter in 
which I have given an array of testimony to show 
that the negro or African race ought not to be freed, 
and that they are physically and mentally incompe- 
tent for self-government. My testimony will be from 
national and municipal records, and official reports 
from abolition missionaries, travellers, and others. 
They will clearly show to what an alarming extent 
designing men have deceived the people on this 
question. 



CHAPTER III. 

Statistical evidence of the ruinous effect of negro emancipa- 
tion to the whole civilized world. 

I feel it to be my duty to write a few pages on 
imports and exports, and illustrate them by statis- 
tical facts, which more than sustain me in all I have 
said about the unproductiveness of the free and the 
freed negroes, and the productiveness of negro slaves. 
These statistics will astonish the reader more than 
anything I have said in this book. The first freed 
people of color were the negroes of St. Domingo, 
who ultimately freed themselves of the white popu- 
lation by an indiscriminate massacre of all the white 
people on that island. In that way they became the 
sole occupants of that immensely rich soil. 

It has been about seventy years since universal 
freedom was proclaimed on that alluvial island, which 
I think was in 1793; therefore I will begin with the 
exports of Ilayti in 1790, three years before negro 
freedom was obtained. In that year the exports of 
that island were §27,828,000, the main productions 
being as follows: — 

Sugar 103,405,000 lbs. 

Coffee 08,151,000 "■ 

Cotton 0,280,000 " 

Indigo 930,000 " 

( 163 ) 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 169 

About thirty years after freedom, the products of 
that rich island were as follows : — 

Sugar . . 32,800 lbs., less 163,373,000 lbs. 

Coffee . . 32,189,700 « " 35,961,300 " 

Cotton . 620,900 " " 5,664,100 " 

Indigo . . 000,000 " " 930,000 " 

I will here remind the reader that coffee grows 
without labor, it being an ■ article of spontaneous 
growth, which accounts for its having fallen off only 
a little over one-half. Now sugar and indigo have 
entirely disappeared, and cotton not much better. 
Logwood, mahogany, and other articles of sponta- 
neous growth, which require no labor to produce 
them, are the only articles of exportation now. 
Coffee grows wild (though it has been transplanted 
there), and therefore requires labor to gather it only, 
which is made a sporting operation or frolic, like 
huckleberrying parties retire to the swamps in this 
country sometimes. See about sixty years after 
emancipation on that island, which was in such a 
high state of cultivation in 1790, as far as settled, 
and then ruled entirely by white masters. In 1849 
we have the latest statistics that are reliable from 
that fallen star: — 





1849. 


1790. 


Sugar 


000 lbs. 


163,405,000 


Coffee 


. 30,608,343 " 


68,151,000 


Cotton 


544,516 " 


6,286,000 


Indigo 


000 " 


930,000 



It seems to me this ought to be enough to satisfy 
an abolitionist, even of the Garrisonian stripe, much 
more Christian men, that the emancipation of the 
15 



170 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

negro race is not only wrong, but a great moral, social, 
and political evil. In or prior to impartial freedom 
on this island^ it supplied at least the half of Europe 
with sugar. It was originally a French colony, and 
if that island, with the negroes, had remained in the 
possession of the French people until this day, it 
would now be the garden spot of the earth, instead 
of being a lost and desolated state. The negroes 
were not to blame for this change. 

The French people themselves, in France, had be- 
come wild on the subject of "impartial" freedom, 
among themselves not including negro slaves, for 
they were not considered fit for anything else than 
slaves. But the French people became fanatical 
about the word "slave," and desired to strike it from 
the statute book. The quadroons and mulattoes 
took hold of it, and determined that all who were 
possessed of* their blood should be included among 
the u impartial" freed people. Therefore the destruc- 
tion caused by the blast of "impartial" emancipation. 

Just so in our glorious nation and country. When 
the Convention met in 1787 to form a Constitution, 
that we might have a more perfect Union as sove- 
reign States, there was not an abolitionist in that 
Convention — no one thought of freeing the slaves, 
or desired to free the negroes in the southern 
States — yet many of them were strongly prejudiced 
against the foreign slave trade, produced, no doubt, 
by the cruelties practised by hard-hearted, bad men 
going into that trade, that should have been carried 
on by Christian men only. Therefore the fanatical 
notions about the word slave being placed in our 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 171 

great national chart, the Constitution of the United 
States. "We, the people," had been a subordinate 
people, held by a tyrant king, and of whom God 
said, " should not be ruled over with rigor." There- 
fore the prejudice that prevailed in the Convention 
against the word slave or servant being embodied 
in the national chart of the United States. That 
prejudice was perhaps the beginning of our downfall 
as a great nation ; for, " What therefore God hath 
joined together, let no man put asunder." Matt. xix. 
6. That national Convention did not intend to abo- 
lish slavery at any time, but were thrown a little on 
the other extreme, by having been treated like slaves 
by Great Britain, and thinking the Constitution could 
be formed so as to secure the rights of the people to 
their slave property without naming slavery in it. 
They forgot for what a small thing Moses was de- 
prived of the honor and pleasure of marching before 
the Israelites into the promised land. He was com- 
manded to speak, that the water might come forth ; 
but instead of that, he smote the rock twice. Num. 
xx. Therefore he was not allowed to enter the land 
that "flowed with milk and honey," but was buried 
in "Mount Nebo," on the borders of the promised 
land. 

No doubt France, England, and Spain thought, or 
mistook the omission of the word slave in our chart, 
for some future intention of abolishing slavery in all 
the States, at the same time thinking it would not 
do to let the United States, who had just emerged 
into being, take the lead in so great a work. In 
less than six years France was wild on the subject 



172 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

of freedom, not of the negroes, but of their own 
race, and half or mixed breed. Those nations did 
not know at that time, that the end of slavery was 
the end of labor with the African race. But the 
French see how it is now, when to late. If the French 
had that Island now, and owned all the negroes, 
instead of exporting about §28,000,000, as they did 
in 1790, they would now export at least $100,000,000 
worth annually. But, alas! what is it now? The 
nearest that it can be got at, at this time, is about 
§1,200,000. The French had it up to $28,000,000 
when the negroes took possession. The demand for 
the different kinds of wood is twenty times as much 
now as it was in 1790. Emancipationists, look at 
this before you go any further in your mad career. 

But is this all? Let us look at the Island of 
Jamaica, which is yet held by the power of British 
bayonets in the hands of white men. 

(I will say here, the statistics I have quoted are 
from the "United States Commercial Kelations," vol. 
i. pp. 561-2, officially reported to Congress.) 

This Island is" nearly equal in fertility to Hayti. 
There have been falsehoods enough told about it by 
abolitionists to sink a world into oblivion. I will 
give one statement made by an English missionary 
in the Five Points mission chapel at New York in 
the fall of 1856, about three months after I was 
at Kingston, Jamaica, where he said he had been 
laboring for many years as a missionary sent there 
by the Congregationalists of England, if I remember 
right. 

His sermon consisted in an alleged history of 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 173 

the great benefit emancipation had been to that 
Island, and to the negro race there. I thought if he 
was a sample of all foreign missionaries, they had all 
better be called home and put to hard labor in the 
coal pits of England. 

He said the negroes had become leading men in 
every good enterprise of that Island. That the pro- 
ductions had gradually increased every year since 
1833, when the slaves were freed. That they were 
the leading business men of that Island, that they 
were nearly all property holders, and many of them 
largely. That nearly the whole Island was in a state 
of dilapidation and ruin in 1833, but now every- 
thing was in a most prosperous condition. That the 
city of Kingston had so revived and increased in 
beauty, style, and wealth, that it did not now look 
like the same place. That the negroes were com- 
monly consulted by English Lords, on plans of 
government for the Island. And that many of them 
lived in palaces of beauty and comfort. In short, 
he made them out as being far superior to any other 
persons on the face of the earth. This seems to be 
the common declaration of nearly all abolitionists, 
and it would appear to be the faith of the Kepub- 
lican party. 

The island of Jamaica contains about 4,000,000 of 
acres, and was prior to 1833 in a high state of culti- 
vation, as far as occupied, at which time the slaves 
were all reduced to apprentices for five years, to be 
freed in 1838, by an act of Parliament. 

I will now give a few statistics and reports that 
will satisfy every reader that that missionary knew 
15* 



174 AFKICAN SLAVEKY. 

he did not tell the truth. I will quote from the 
Cyclopaedia of Couimerce ; published by Harper & 
Brothers, of New York, before and after emanci- 
pation. 

Prior to Freedom. After Freedom. 

Tears. Value of exports. Years. Value of exports. 

1809, $15,166,170 1853, $4,186,380 

1810, 11,517,895 1854, 4,661,580 

Two successive years of exports before freedom, 
§26,684,065 ; two successive years of exports after 
freedom, $8,847,960, This ought to satisfy every 
white man in the world that the negroes ought not 
to be free. The deficit, §17,836,105. I have taken 
the above about twenty years before and twenty 
years after freedom, so as to be clear of the agitation 
of the question. 

The bulk of products of Jamaica in 1805 — 

Sugar 150,352 hhds. 

Rum ...... '46,837 punch. 

Allspice 1,041,540 lbs. 

Coffee 17,961,923 u 

This was prior to the stoppage of the importation 
of slaves to the island of Jamaica, at which time 
agriculture was in a high state of improvement. 
The sugar was the largest crop ever produced on 
that Island. So the following table will show the 
want of labor in the sugar culture in 1834, one year 
after slavery was abolished, and the negroes con- 
verted into apprentices ; but they at once ceased to 
fear their masters, and consequently to labor as they 
previously did, and sugar requiring an immense 
amount of labor and care to produce and save it, 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 175 

therefore see as follows 'for 1834, just thirty years 
after the above crop was produced, which was prior 
to the agitation of the abolition question. 
In 1834, exports of Jamaica — 

Sugar 84,756 hhds. 

Rum 32,111 punch. 

Allspice 3,605,400 lbs. 

Coffee 17,725,731 " 

Remember that coffee and allspice are of spon- 
taneous growth, and therefore labor was ouly required 
to gather them, which is very light work, and mostly 
done by women and children, which accounts for 
those two articles not falling off proportionably to 
the others. Coffee ought to have largely increased, 
for, like the allspice tree, it takes possession of aban- 
doned lands soon after they are deserted, and grows 
without cultivation. 

The next year after emancipation, sugar fell off 
10,000 hhds, ; coffee fell off 7,000,000 lbs., and this 
decrease has constantly continued until 1856, when 
the productions of Jamaica were as follows : — 

Sugar . ... 25,920 hhds. 

Rum 14,470 punch. 

Allspice 6,848,622 lbs. 

Coffee 3,328,200 " 

I will compare 1856 with 1805, and I wish every 
abolitionist would look at it with a single eye to his 
and his own country's true glory. 





1805. 


1856. 


Rum . 


46,837 punch. 


14,470 punch. 


Coffee . 


. 17,961,923 lbs. 


3,328,150 lbs. 


Allspice 


. 1,041,540 " 


6,848,600 " 


Sugar . 


150,352 hhds. 


25,920 hhds. 



176 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

This table shows the effect of emancipation on the 
Island of Jamaica from the year before the importa- 
tion of slaves was prohibited and 1856, which was 
twenty-three years of the glories of free labor with 
1856 inclusive. Sugar fell off 124,432 hhds., rum 
32,367 puncheons, coffee 14,633,773 lbs.; pimenta or 
allspice gained 5,807,060 lbs. 

It seems to me that this ought to be more than 
enough for every lover of his country. Certainly 
no Christian man, woman, or minister will ever ad- 
vocate emancipation after looking over these reports 
or statistics, which are from the most reliable sources, 
and I hope they may be thoroughly investigated. 
In a very short time, at the same rate of decrease, 
the Island of Jamaica, that while under slave labor 
was sufficient to supply the whole United States with 
all they needed of those products, will be forever 
lost to the world, like Hayti. If slave labor had 
been allowed to have gone on until this day, under 
proper safeguards and protection of law, instead of 
•their only producing 26,000 hogsheads of sugar, 
they would now produce 250,000 hogsheads, or 
425,000,000 pounds; and instead of 3,328,150 pounds 
of coffee, they would now produce 50,000,000 pounds ; 
allspice and rum in the same ratio, with all other 
products of that island. Sugar would not now be 
over four cents a pound, and coffee not over six cents, 
and all other articles in proportion. 

I am reminded by my abolition friends (exultingly) 
that I have not given freedom credit for the large 
increase of pimenta. Well, the increase of that ar- 
ticle was, according to the table, above 5,633,773 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 177 

pounds, I admit; but that fact sustains my position 
as strongly as any other. Allspice or pimenta grows 
in the mountains, on bushes or trees ; therefore no 
labor is required to produce it ; to gather it is like 
child's play ; it is more of an exercise than manual 
labor. Thousands, and even hundreds of thousands 
of idle negroes, men, women, and children, daily 
resort to the swamps or mountains, for sport, in 
gathering allspice, which is a darkish red looking 
berry, similar to currants. They have only to gather 
them from the trees, and dry them in the sun; (the 
tree is a native of those islands.) It requires no 
manual . labor ; therefore those lazy idlers do that 
because it is more of a frolic than labor, and it pro- 
duces a scant livelihood or subsistence. Nor does it 
require the slightest ingenuity or calculation to 
gather and dry them. These are facts that fully 
account for the increase of that article. 

Coffee is not a native of those islands, but has 
been transplanted there. It produces better by cul- 
tivation ; but, once introduced into suitable soil and 
climate, it spreads like the allspice tree. It does not 
only spread in the mountains, but, with the allspice 
tree, takes possession of forsaken lands, and grows 
in a very short time to a producing size, and is con- 
sidered far more profitable, and pays better for labor 
than allspice. But, unfortunately for Sambo, it re- 
quires ingenuity, labor, and great care, as it grows 
within a covering, and cannot be got out and cleansed 
without work ; therefore Sambo and his hosts say, 
"me no like 'em," and turn away to the allspice trees. 

This is still a stronger evidence that all I have 



178 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

said in the several chapters I have written on the 
nature of the negro race is true beyond successful 
contradiction or proof to the contrary, that the ne- 
gro race is not now, never has been, nor never will 
be of any use, in any part of the world, except in 
slavery to white men. There they are as useful a 
people as is on the face of the earth. 

The coffee crop of Jamaica, 1813, before slavery 
was abolished, amounted to nearly 35,000,000 pounds. 
For the last eight or nine years the average has 
been about 5,000,000 pounds, deficit 30,000,000 
pounds per annum, and in 1853 the sugar crop was 
only 20,000 hhds. So you see I have not taken the 
two extremes, or erred, in order to sustain my posi- 
tion, for any kind of an error would injure my case. 

The English missionary I spoke of above, said a 
large number of estates had been abandoned under 
slave labor and considered lost to the world, but 
now had been bought by the freed negroes, since 
emancipation, and brought into use' by them, and 
that the freed negroes had made them the most pro- 
ductive plantations on the Island. But how does 
his story stand by the side of the above official 
reports or statistics ? He was not the only man that 
did not hesitate to say what he knew was false. 
But every intelligent abolition preacher does the 
same thing. Let us look at the abandoned planta- 
tions a little, from the undoubted reports, and we 
shall see that that preacher (who, by the way, was a 
very talented and an educated man) knew better, 
(for he said he had been on the Island twenty years), 
and all others who preach the same doctrine. If 



AFRICAN SLAVEKY. 179 

they do not, they are not fit to preach the gospel, 
and ought to be silenced for their ignorance. 

I quote from the legislative reports of that Island 
as follows : " Before emancipation, the assessments of 
property, real, and personal, was over $250,000,000. 
In 1850, the assessment was $57,500,000. In 1851, 
it was reduced to $47,500,000, and Mr. Westmore- 
land, in the Assembly, said it was believed that the 
falling off would be $10,000,000 more in 1852". 
From an official report to the Assembly, of the 
number and size of the plantations abandoned 
during the years of 1818, '-19, '50, '51, and '52 are 
as follows: — 

Coffee plantations abandoned .... 96 

" partly abandoned &Q 

Sugar estates abandoned 128 

" " partly abandoned ... 71 

The number of estates abandoned the five years 
immediately succeeding emancipation were as fol- 
lows : — 

Sugar estates . . . 145 168,000 acres. 

Coffee plantations . . 467 189,000 " 

Add to this, those above . 361 391,000 " 



This gives us in ten years 973 748,000 " lost, 

for ever lost. 

I have not been able to obtain reliable reports or 
statistics for any time except the ten years, as above. 
But, rest assured, that the same process of declen- 
sion has been going on steadily from 1833 to this 
the 30th of August, 1862, at about the same rate ; 
and now more than one-half of the plantations and 
sugar estates of the entire Island are abandoned, 



180 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

and grown up in allspice and coffee trees. These 
plantations employed over 100,000 slaves, who were 
then moral, sober, civilized, industrious, and very 
useful. But now are useless, degraded, savage, 
vagabonds, who lay about in the sun, or lie in the 
shade in large gangs, many in a state of nudity and 
filth, like the mosquitoes and flies that suck the 
life blood out of those who are their only hope for 
any state of happiness in this world without permis- 
sion. They seem to think they have a right to ap- 
propriate to their own use whatever they find out 
of sight of the British soldier. They are the most 
loathsome beings on the face of the earth. I speak 
this from personal knowledge of the facts, for I was 
among them in 1856, and know what I say is very 
true. 

I have been cutting from official reports and 
statements from travellers who were and still are 
emancipationists. Some of the latter I will copy, after 
giving the following tables, computated from statis- 
tics and official reports (by a gentleman who is as well 
posted on the rise and fall of the West India Islands 
as any other man living, and I hope he will excuse 
me for taking his table verbatim. I will say to him 
I have written manuscripts enough on the subject 
for 600 pages 12mo., and had I published them one 
year ago when ready, I might have thought he had 
borrowed of me. But as I still have the work 
locked up, I know he selected, as I did). It clearly 
shows the contrast between free negro labor and slave 
negro labor, and I hope every mini, woman, and 
child who are now supporters of the republican 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 181 

party will examine these statistics, and official re- 
ports before the j ever give another vote for universal 
emancipation in this country. 

"Slave" Negro Labor. 

Years. lbs. Sugar. lbs. Coffee. lbs. Cotton. 

British W. Indies, 1807, 636,025,643 31,610,764 17,000,000 

Hayti, 1790, 163,318,810 76,835,219 7,286,126 



Total, 809,344,453 108,445,983 24,286,126 

"Free" Negro Labor. 

Years. lbs. Sugar. lbs. Coffee. lbs. Cotton. 

British W. Indies, 1848, 313,306,112 6,770,792 427,529 

Hayti, 1848, none to ex. 34,114,717 1,591,454 



Total, 313,306,112 40,885,509 2,018,983 

Free Negro Labor Deficit, 496,038,341 67,560,474 22,267,143 

I think this is proof enough for any honest man, 
and much more a Christian. The sugar deficit alone 
is enough to produce a war of extermination on all 
abolitionists, and bring the Christian Church, which 
is our only guide and safeguard as a free people, into 
bad repute with a struggling world ; for very many 
of her strongest and most powerful ministers have 
taken the lead for this ruin to the world, and burn- 
ing blast to our peace and happiness, perhaps for- 
ever. Look at it, and you will see the deficit in one 
year of free negro labor is sufficient to supply every 
man, woman, and child, black and white, each with 
over sixteen and a half pounds of sugar ; 496,038,341 
lbs. of sugar, at 10 cts. per lb., is $49,603,834.10. 
This is only one article of produce. If the West 
India Islands and if Hayti had gone on by slave labor 
under good white masters, sugar and coffee would 
16 ' 



182 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

never be over four to six cents per pound, and 
all the luxuries of those islands would now be 
as accessible and attainable by every poor laboring 
man as they are now by the rich. The whites would 
have been exterminated long before this, had it not 
been for the British standing army constantly in 
sight. 

Mr. Underbill, a member of the Jamaica Assembly, 
an abolitionist, from whom I have already quoted, 
speaks of Cuba, where slavery still exists, and those 
islands where it does not exist, as follows. Of 
Havana he says : — 

" It is the busiest and most prosperous of all the 
cities of the Antilles. Its harbor is one of the finest 
in the world, and is crowded with shipping. Its 
wharves and warehouses are piled with merchandise, 
and the general aspect is one of great commercial ac- 
tivity. Its exports nearly reach the annual value of 
nine millions sterling, and the customs furnish an 
annual tribute to the mother country over and above 
the cost of government and military occupation. 
Eight thousand ships annually resort to the harbor 
of Cuba." 

Is it not strange that Mr. Underbill did not at 
once proclaim to the world his great mistake in sup- 
posing that the negro was the white man's equal, 
and not fit for anything else than a slave ? Mr. U. 
seemed to have been surprised to find that that pro- 
slavery island was still what Jamaica was before the 
British government, by that insane and diabolical 
act of emancipation, had ruined their hopes forever. 
To find Cuba still exporting produce to the amount 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 183 

of $45,000,000 annually, while that of Jamaica had 
fallen from nearly as large an amount of exportations 
to §4,500,000 in consequence of emancipation of the 
slaves on that island, see the following illustration : — 

Jamaica in 1809 .... $15,166,000 

Cuba " 1826 .... 13,809,388 

Jamaica " 1854 .... 4,500,000 

Cuba " 1854 .... 31,683,731 

So you see Cuba, under slaveholders and by slave 
labor, has gradually increased from 1826 to 1854 from 
$13,809,388, to $31,683,731; while Jamaica gradu- 
ally fell off. from 1809 to 1854, from $15,166,000, to 
$4,500,000. This picture certainly will surprise a 
great many good people who have been deceived and 
totally blinded by disunionists and traitors of the 
north, or free States, among whom are the most talent- 
ed statesmen, many of whom are now in power under 
the government; preachers of the Gospel, of all de- 
nominations, and some of them the most talented and 
influential, and, like the English missionary alluded to 
before, they say in their pulpits what they know is 
false, from beginning to end, with such grace and zeal, 
with their hands on their hearts and eyes rolled into 
the heavens, in such way that their hearers believe 
them sincere and truthful. They in their pulpits 
speak of Sharp's rifles as being the best gospel for 
slaveholders, and talk of blowing men's brains out 
with (apparently) as much relish as they would have 
for a fine dinner. Where will such wretches stand 
in the great day of account? 

I met a merchant the other day, an old acquaint- 
ance, with whom I had been contending at times on 



184 AFKICAN SLAVERY. 

the slave question for twenty-eight years. He tack- 
led me on the prospects of universal emancipation 
in the United States ; referred me to Jamaica, and 
said it was enough to convert any man who was not 
given over to believe a lie, that he might be damned. 
I replied that I thought so too. I believe he thought 
I had become a convert to his expressed opinion, and 
he went on to tell me of the great and astonishing 
changes that had taken place in the Island of Jamaica 
since emancipation. I remarked that that was so. 
He said the island produced at least three times as 
much now as it did before the negroes were freed ; 
that everything on the island had improved at the 
same rate. I just looked him in the face at that 
point and said I was on that island in 1856, and said 
no more. He was certainly embarrassed at the remark. 

That gentleman could be trusted on all other 
subjects of civil or natural jurisprudence, and was 
as clever a man as this city held. I regret to say 
he was buried in one week from that day. 

"Will any one say that that gentleman did not 
know that what he said was not the truth ? Though 
a member of meeting, yet he was a boasting infidel, 
and hated Christianity with a perfect and bitter ha- 
tred, and became an infidel because the Bible sanc- 
tioned slavery. 

It will not be long before cultivation will entirely 
come to an end on that island. The island contains 
about 4,000,000 acres, and its white inhabitants, in 
1844, was 15,776 ; Africans, 293,128 ; mixed breed, 
63,500. In 1861 the whites were 13,800; Africans, 
346,300 ; mixed breed, 81,000. So you may see by 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 185 

this table, that it will not be long before this island, 
like its sister, Hayti, will be totally lost to the world. 
To know this, it is only necessary to look at the 
rapid increase of the colored race and decrease of 
the white. The whole number of inhabitants is 
441,100 : 80,700 can read, and 50,700 can write (of 
the 80,700). So you see that 360,400 can neither 
read nor write. 

In Hayti no census can be taken, no figures can 
be got, because the negroes have got free and full 
possession. Abolitionist, look at those figures, and 
think over this interesting subject before you take 
another step towards the downfall of this great 
country. Will you draw that awful blight of negro 
emancipation over this great nation that will fester 
in the hearts of future generations, and cause them 
to rise up and look back with bitter curses upon us. 
For they will know and feel the effects of our infi- 
delity and disgraceful wickedness that we deliber- 
ately inaugurated as a blighting curse upon them. 
While, history will tell them of the glories our 
fathers inaugurated and handed down to us. But 
for us, with all those figures before us, and right in 
the teeth of divine revelation, with all the teachings 
of that Holy Book to do what is so clearly forbidden 
by nature, and nature's God, is more than I can ac- 
count for. What must our condemnation be in the 
great day of God ! 

I will now give a few extracts from prominent 
men. An English writer, writing from the Capital 
of Hayti, says : — 

* This country has made since its emancipation no 
16* 



186 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

progress whatever. The population partially live 
upon the produce of the grown wild coffee planta- 
tions, remnants of the French dominion. Properly 
speaking, plantations after the model of the English 
in Jamaica, or the Spanish in Cuba, do not exist 
here. Hayti is the most beautiful and most fertile 
of the Antilles. It has more mountains than Cuba, 
and more space than Jamaica. Nowhere the coffee 
tree could better thrive than here, as it especially 
likes a mountainous soil. But the indolence of the 
negro has brought the once splendid plantations to decay. 
They now gather coffee only from the grown wild 
trees. The cultivation of the sugar cane has entirely 
disappeared, and the Island that once supplied the 
one-half of Europe with sugar, now supplies its own 
wants from Jamaica and the United States.'' 1 

Mr. E. B. Underbill was sent out to Hayti by the 
Baptist Missionary Society, of London. He was an 
abolitionist of the Thompson stripe; after making 
many excuses for Cuffee, for his having ruined that 
Eden of this world, was compelled to give the fol- 
lowing history : — 

We passed by many, or through many abandoned 
plantations, the buildings in ruins, the sugar mills de- 
cayed, and the iron pans strewing the road-side, cracked 
and broken. But for the law that forbids, on pain of 
confiscation, the export of all metals, they would 
long ago have been sold to foreign merchants. Only 
once in this long ride did we come upon a mill in 
use ; it was grinding cane, in order to manufacture 
the syrup from which tafia is made, a kind of inferior 
rum, the intoxicating drink of the country. The 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 187 

mill was worked by a < large over-shot, or water- 
wheel, the water being brought by an aqueduct 
from a very considerable distance. "With the excep- 
tion of a few banana gardens or small patches of 
maze round the cottages, nowhere did this magnifi- 
cent and fertile plain show signs of cultivation. 

" In the time of the French occupation, before the 
Revolution of 1793, thousands of hogsheads of sugar 
were produced; now, not one, all is decay and desolation. 
The pastures are deserted, and the prickly pear 
covers the land once laughing with the bright hues 
of the sugar cane. 

"The hydraulic works, erected at vast expense 
for irrigation, have crumbled to dust. 

" The plow is an unknown implement of culture, al- 
though so eminently adapted to the great plains and 
deep soil of Hayti. 

"A country so capable of producing for export, 
and therefore for the enrichment of its people — 
besides sugar and coffee ; cotton, tobacco, the cacao 
bean, spices, every tropical fruit, and many of the 
fruits of Europe, lies uncultivated, unoccupied, and 
desolate. 

" Its rich mines are neither explored nor worked, 
and its beautiful woods rot in the soil where they 
grow. A little logwood is exported, but ebony, 
mahogany, and the finest building timber rarely fall 
before the woodman's axe, and then only for local 
use. The present inhabitants despise all servile 
labor, and are for the most part content with the 
spontaneous productions of the soil and forest." 

Mr. Underbill was a resident Baptist missionary, 



188 AFEICAN SLAVEKY. 

or something of the same nature, at Hayti, and an 
abolitionist, and therefore ought to be respected in all 
he says on the subject. Like many other good men, 
he has put the most favorable construction on all he 
saw, that he possibly could without twisting the 
truth, as you will see above, where he speaks of 
" cottages." This naturally impresses the mind here 
with the idea of a nice little house, when they are 
nothing but the most miserable thatch cabins with- 
out glass windows, and they have earthen floors. 

Mr. U. published a work in London, entitled 
"The West Indies; their Moral and Social Condi- 
tion," in which some of his excuses are laughable 
for the degradation of the negroes. Yet every 
abolitionist ought to read it. 

" The Vandoux," says Mr. Underbill, " meet in a 
retired spot, designated at a previous meeting. On 
entering, they take off their shoes, and bind about 
their bodies handkerchiefs, in which a red color pre- 
dominates. The king is known by the scarlet band 
around his head, worn like a crown, and a scarf of 
the same color distinguishes the queen. The object 
of adoration, the serpent, is placed on a stand. It is 
then worshipped, after which the box is placed on 
the ground ; the queen mounts upon it, is seized with 
violent tremblings, and gives utterance to oracles in 
response to the prayers of the worshippers. A dance 
closes the ceremony. The king puts his hand on the , 
serpent's box ; a tremor seizes him, which is com- 
municated to the circle. A delirious whirl of dance 
ensues, heightened by the free use of tafia. The 
weakest fall as if dead upon the spot. The baccha- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 189 

nalian revellers, always dancing and turning about, 
are borne away into a place near at hand, where 
sometimes under the triple excitement of promis- 
cuous intercourse, drunkenness, and darkness, scenes 
are enacted, enough to make the impassible gods of 
Africa itself gnash their teeth with horror." 

I have said in a former chapter that the negro 
race might be raised to the highest state of civiliza- 
tion and Christianity they are capable of, under the 
immediate influence of the best Christian white men 
and women in the world, and then leave them en- 
tirely to themselves, with all the advantages of soil 
and climate, and a full supply to start on equal 
footing with the best part of all creation, and with 
both the moral and civil governments in their own 
hands, then, in less than ten years, they would be on 
a level with the most degraded and savage men on 
the earth. God himself has made them for useful- 
ness as slaves, and requires us to employ them as 
such, and if we betray our trust, and throw them off 
on their own resources, we reconvert them into bar- 
barians, and we shall be compelled to atone for our sin 
towards them through all time. 

I have given enough evidence to satisfy any true 
seeker after truth, that unconditional freedom to the 
negro race is not only a great moral and political 
wrong inflicted upon them, but a great political and 
financial affliction and curse to the whole civilized 
world, and a moral evil of greater magnitude than 
any before introduced among men. The whole civil- 
ized world was blessed by Hayti while in the hands 
of white men ; but those blessings stopped short by 






190 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

that rich, and beautiful country passing into the 
hands of the negro race ; the rich man's pocket is 
heavily taxed in high prices, and the poor are left 
in want. The testimony I have given to sustain my 
position in reference to Hayti is not the fiftieth part 
I have in hand ; but it seems to me to be enough. 

I will now make a few quotations to sustain the 
statistics I have given, showing the rise and fall of 
the Island of Jamaica. I have an editorial from the 
London Times that was in my possession before Mr. 
Lincoln was nominated for the Presidency ; so you 
will see that the civil war now raging in the United 
States did not influence it either way. See as fol- 
lows : — 

" There is no blinking the truth, years of bitter experience, 
years of hope deferred, of self-devotion unrequited, of prayers 
unanswered, of sufferings derided, of insults unresented, of 
contumely patiently endured, have convinced us of the truth — 
it must be spoken out loudly and energetically, despite the 
•wild mockings of howling cant ; the freed West India slave 
will not till the soil for wages; the free son of the ex-slave is 
as obstinate as his sire. He will not cultivate lands which he 
has not bought for his own. Yams, mangoes, and plantains, 
these satisfy his wants ; he cares not for yours. Cotton, sugar, 
coffee, and tobacco he cares but little for. And what matters 
it to him that the Englishman has sunk his thousands and tens 
of thousands on mills, machinery, and plants, which now totter 
on the languishing estate, that for years has only returned him 
beggary and debt. He eats his yams, and sniggers at buckra. 
We know not why this should be, but so it is. The negro has 
been bought with a price — the price of English taxation, and 
English toil. He has been redeemed from bondage by the sweat 
and travail of some millions of hard-working Englishmen. 
Twenty millions of pounds sterling — one hundred millions of 
dollars — have been distilled from the brains and muscles of 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 191 

the free English laborer, of every degree,- to fashion the West 
India negro into a free, independent laborer. Free and inde- 
pendent enough he has become, God knows, but laborer lie is 
not; and, so far as we can see, never will be. He will sing 
hymns and quote texts; but honest, steady, industry he not 
only detests, but despises." (The italicizing in all these quo- 
tations are mine.) 

Have I said anything stronger than the above? 
The London Times makes full confession of its errors. 
It had supposed that the negroes would work better 
for wages than under masters; hut, Oh, what a sad 
mistake; for they never would, nor never will labor 
without white masters. And, "woe" be unto this 
great country whenever all the negroes are freed. 
Besides, freedom is the end of civilization to the 
negro race, and his perpetual overthrow and ruin ; 
and God will hold us responsible for all the bad 
which shall grow out of emancipation. 

I will make another quotation from an English 
writer, who was one of the strongest antislavery men. 
Mr. Anthony Trollope says, in a book he wrote on 
Jamaica, and from which the following was quoted 
by a London paper : — 

"A servile race, peculiarly fitted by Nature for the hardest 
physical work in a burning climate. The negro has no desire 
for property strong enough to induce him to labor with sus- 
tained power. He lives from hand to mouth, in order that he 
may have his dinner, and some small finery, he will work a 
little, but after that he is content to lie in the sun. This, in 
Jamaica, he can very easily do, for emancipation and free 
trade have combined to throw enormous tracts of land out of 
cultivation, and on these the negro squats, getting all that he 
wants with very little trouble, and sinking in the most resolute 
fashion, to the savage state. Lying under his cotton-tree he 



192 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

refuses to work after, ten o'clock in the morning. No, tankee, 
massa, me tired now ; me no want more money. Or, by the 
way of variety he may say — no, workee no more ; money no 
nufif; no workee no pay. And so the planter must see his 
canes foul with weeds, because he cannot prevail on Sambo to 
earn a second shilling by going into the cane field. He calls 
him a lazy nigger, and threatens him with starvation. His 
answer is : No, massa ; no starve now ; God send plenty yam. 
These yams, be it observed, on which Sambo lives, and on the 
strength of which he declines to work, are grown on the 
planter's own ground, and probably planted at his own expense. 
There lies the shiny, oily, odorous negro under his mango-tree, 
eating the luscious fruit in the sun. He seiads his black 
urchin up for a bread-fruit, and, behold, the family table is 
spread. He pierces a cocoa-nut, and lo ! there is his beverage. 
He lies on the ground surrounded by oranges, bananas, and 
pine apples. Why shoidd he work; me no workee to-day ; me 
no like workee, just um little moment." 

This witness more than sustains me in all I have 
said about the negro in the United States and else- 
where. I have admissions enough made by anti- 
slavery men to fully satisfy me that I am right on 
both the moral and civil question of slavery, even if 
I had never seen any wrong produced by emancipa- 
tion. I have not given the strongest testimony I 
have in my possession by a great deal. I have made 
no quotations from men who were not anti-slavery 
men. I will give one more from the same source. 
I quote from the American and Foreign Anti-slavery 
Society's report for 1853, p. 170. Speaking of the 
emancipated slaves, see as follows : — 

" Their moral condition is very far from being what it ought 
to be. It is exceedingly dark and distressing. Licentiousness 
prt vails to a most alarming extent among the people. * * * 
The almost universal prevalence of intemperance is another 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 193 

prolific source of the moral darkness, and degradation of the 
people. The great mass among all classes of the inhabitants, 
from the governor in his palace to the peasant in his hut, from 
the bishop in his gown to the beggar in his rags, are all slaves 
to their cups." 

This much, for emancipation and abolitionism. 
Instead of freedom having elevated the negro, it 
has sunk him into the deepest degradation and ruin. 
" The end of slavery is the end of civilization to the 
negro race." 

I will give a few more statistical tables to show 
the great benefits of slave labor to the world, and 
the great moral benefit to the negroes, without one 
exception. 

The exports and imports in Cuba in 1859 were as 
follows : — 

Exports for 1859 ..... $57,455,000 
Imports " " 43,465,000 



Surplus over imports .... $13,990,000 

This table of itself is sufficient to satisfy all can- 
did men, to see how steadily Cuba, with the other 
Spanish Islands, have advanced under slave labor; 
while the morals of the slaves there are a hundred 
times better than the morals of the negroes in Ja- 
maica. If the institution of slavery be immoral, 
how does it produce so much good? Can moral 
evil beget moral good and righteousness? If eman- 
cipation of the negro be morally right, how is it 
that it has produced nothing but moral evil and 
complete ruin and degradation to the negro race, 
wherever he has been freed, either here or elsewhere ? 
17 



194 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

Abolitionist, think of this, or show some good done 
to either race by the emancipation of negro slaves. 

You will see by the above table that the export- 
ations of Cuba amount to $40 for each man, woman, 
and child, black and white, on the whole island. 

But let us look a little at our own exports and 
imports. I have not got the figures for 1860 and 
'61. I will give the tables for the fiscal year ending 
June 30, 1860. 

Including specie, our exports were . . $373,107,000 
Foreign produce in addition .... 27,000,000 

$400,167,000 
361,727,209 



In all . 
Imports for the year 

Surplus over importations . . . $38,439,791 

This gives about $1.26 per head, supposing our 
population to be 30,000,000. But in Cuba, where it 
is exclusively slave labor, it is over $9.30 per head. 
Our whole exports amount (including the $27,000,000 
of foreign produce reshipped), to about $12.44 per 
head, and that of Cuba to $40.00. I hope the reader 
will look well at these figures, for they fully sustain 
my position on all points, and rebuke the whole 
abolition movement. How strange it is that men 
let a false or morbid sympathy run off with all their 
brains! A nation whose judgments are led by their 
sympathies, will sink into ruin in a very short time. 
God made animals to move by instinct, and white 
men by judgment. If we allow anything to rise 
above that judgment, wo be unto us, for God will 
leave us to follow our idols. 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 195 

There lias so much been said about the slave 
States having been a great incumbrance to the free 
States, ever since the adoption of the Constitution, 
that hundreds of thousands of the people have got to 
believe it all over the free States. I have heard so 
many good men say we should be better off without 
the slave States, and that we have had to carry them 
on our backs. Abolitionists have declared the false- 
hood with such zeal that many of the best and most 
influential men have taken their word for it, and 
preached the same doctrine with equal zeal, and 
think they are right. 

Let us look at it a little by figures and tables, for 
they will not lie. We have been importing between 
three and four hundred millions, say $362,000,000 
round numbers, which is §12.66 per head, for 
30,000,000 of people. The exports are $100,000,000, 
including the $27,000,000 of foreign produce re- 
shipped, and the specie, which is $13.33 per head. 
Now let us see where those exports come from, and 
to whom we are indebted for this immense export- 
ation, which is the life of the country, while large 
importations are her death. But who pays for the 
$362,000,000, which is nearly all imported by the 
free States ? We must deduct the specie, which is 
$57,000,000, and the foreign produce, 27,000,000, 
which makes $81,000,000; this leaves $316,000,000 
of American produce exported, which is about $10.50 
per head. I now propose to show just how much 
of the $316,000,000 is of the free States, and then we 
shall know what the slaves have done. 



196 



AFKICAN SLAVERY. 



The free States exclusively .... 

The free and slave States which cannot be exactly 
credited to the States it is from, is made up of 
raw produce, manufactures, products of agri- 
culture, vegetable food, products of the forest, 



,071,400 



a,nd manufactured articles, 


etc., exports . 96,826,300 


The slave States exclusively — 




Cotton 




$191,806,555 


Rice 




2,566,400 


Rosin and turpentine 




3,734,500 


Tobacco . 




15,906,517 


Tar and pitch . 




151,100 


Brown sugar . 




103,244 


Molasses . 




44,562 


Hemp 




8,951 


Total of the slave States . 


$214,321,829 


Altogether — 




Free and slave States 


$96,826,300 




5,071,400 


Slave States exclusively 




214,321,829 



$316,219,529 
Now here is $96,826,300 jointly exported by the 
free and slave States. It is made up of produce that 
is raised alike in all the States in the United States; 
therefore a correct division cannot be made of the 
credible amount to each State. But any one having 
the slightest familiarity with the slave and free 
States would say, at least one-third of the amount is 
of slave labor. There is no difficulty about the rest. 
For instance, the $5,071,400 set down exclusively for 
the free States is ice, coal, and fish. 

Then we are compelled to add to the exclusive 
exportation of the slave States — 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 197 

One-third part of the $96,826,300 . . . $32,275,433 

Slave States exclusive , . . . 215,321,829 

"The full amount exported from the South . $246,597,262 

Exclusively from free States .... $5,071,431 
Add to the two-thirds of the joint exportations, 

slave and free 64,550,867 



Exclusively from the free States . . . $69,622,298 
Exclusively from the South .... 246,597,262 

Exports of the whole United States . $316,219,560 

I am met with a protest against these tables, and 
told the free States send a vast amount of produce 
manufactured to the South, and therefore the slave 
States should not have credit in the above table for 
one third part of the joint exportation of $96,826,299. 
I only have to say in reply to this objection, that 
the South sends vast amounts of produce to the 
North, that are not included in the above tables, for 
they do not enter any custom-house whatever, there- 
fore are not included in the United States Eeports 
at "Washington, from which the above is taken. 
They are as follows, and I want every republican 
and abolitionist to look at them as well as all anti- 
slavery democrats — 

Cotton manufactured in the free States . $55,500,000 

Sugar 25,000,000 

Naval stores, lumber, tobacco, rice, and hemp, 

perhaps* 50,000,000 

Aggregate $130,500,000 

I have no figures before me by which I can give 
the value of the latter slave produce, and should not 
be surprised if I have placed it far below the mark. 
17* 



198 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

This immense amount is consumed in the free States. 
There is no doubt but we receive a much larger 
amount of domestic (raw) produce from the slave 
States than we furnish them ; but they have taken 
from us a vast amount of manufactured goods, and 
paid a profit on them, which has been the support of 
legions of our poor in the free States. In these es- 
timates you will find that the free States export 
$3.41 per head, and the slave States export $24.60 
per head. If you disbelieve it, get the United States 
Eeports by a republican administration, and make 
your own calculations, and let us have them in black 
and white, and I, for one, will stand by the right, 
even if my life was required to pay the penalty. 

I will now copy a table prepared by Messrs. 
Van-Evrie, Horton & Co., No. 162 Nassau Street, 
New York, which every loyal man in the United 
States ought to get and read. For ten cents, sent 
with your address, order No. 2 on statistics. It will 
surprise^ you to find how you have been deceived. 
I have a table of my own made out, but this one is 
easier to be understood — 

Returns from the Treasury Department at Washington, 
shoiving the value of the exports and imports for forty years, 
from 1821 to 1861, with the customs paid during the same time 
to the United States. 

Gross value of exports from 1821 

to 1861 85,556,339,272 

Gross value of imports from 1821 

to- 1861 5,501,238,157 

Customs, duties on imports paid 

in the United States Treasury 

Office 1,191,874,443 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 199 

Total United States exports for forty years — 
Cotton . . $2,574,834,991 
Tobacco . . 425,118,007 

Rice . . 87,854,511 

Naval Stores . 110,981,296 



Amount of duty. 



Total in forty years $3,198,788,865 $689,141,805 

Food . . 1,006,951,335 216,682,773 

Gold . . 458,588,615 95,349,955 
Crude articles, 

manufactures, 

&c. . . 892,010,457 190,699,910 



$5,556,339,272 $1,191,874,443 

Exports from the South, exclusively for forty years — 
Cotton . . $2,574,834,991 

425,118,067 Amount of duty 
87,854,511 paid by the South. 
110,981,296 $689,141,805 



Tobacco . 
Rice 

Naval Stores 
Forty per cent 

of the gold 
l-3d of food 



183,588,615 72,227,591 

335,650,411 38,139,982 



Total in forty years $3,718,027,891 $799,509,378 

Amount of duties from the North . . 392,365,065 



Excess duties paid by the South over the 

North in forty years .... $407,144,313 

Duties per head on the present population of 
the free States, the last forty years ending 1861, 
was $19.61 paid by the South in the same time 
per head on the present population of the slave 
States, including slave women and children, was 
$79.90. .1 had heard so much of declensions of the 
slave States, by the blight of slavery, that I had 
got to believe there was some truth in the assertion, 



200 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

and, like thousands of others who were anti-aboli- 
tionist same as myself, had got to speaking of slavery 
as a social, political, and financial evil. But I took 
a tour through several of the interior slaves States 
some years ago. I made it my business to lose no 
spare time in looking into the political, social, and 
moral condition of the slaves and their masters. I 
found the political, social, and moral standing of the 
latter generally equal to any people I have ever 
seen, and I believe equal to any on the face of the 
globe. And that of the slaves was indescribably 
better on the general than any class of free negroes 
I had ever seen. I had not then even thought of 
slavery as a moral question. Though, I had so 
often heard men say it was a great sin against God, 
and that no slave owner ever had, or ever could 
enter the Kingdom of Glory. Those declarations 
had but little effect on my mind, until preachers of 
the gospel began to denounce slavery from their 
pulpits as an unbounded moral evil, and slave- 
holders as moral devils. This caused me to look 
into the moral question of negro slavery, and the 
result was as stated in the first two chapters of this 
book. I think I have proved, both by negative and 
positive testimony, that slavery is not only not a 
moral evil, but a great moral blessing to the whole 
civilized world. While the emancipation of the 
negro race has always been, and is now, a moral 
evil of the greatest magnitude of any other ever 
introduced into this sin-stricken world by the Prince 
of darkness. I must see more good than evil from 
the emancipation of that race, before I change my 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 201 

mind in one iota, and then I should be compelled to 
close the Book of God for ever. For if slavery be a 
moral evil, the Bible is not the inspired word of God. 

If slavery be a moral evil, how is it that it has 
done so much good to both races ? And if emanci- 
pation be a civil and moral blessing, or either, how 
is it that it has proved such a terrible curse to both 
races throughout civilization, but especially to those 
countries in which they are freed ? See how quick 
any country is blighted and ruined by the freedom 
of the negro race. Look at Mexico, Central America, 
and the Tropics of South America, and all the Brit- 
ish and French West Indies — how quick they all fell 
from a high, prosperous state of cultivation and 
moral worth to the deepest degradation and ruin ! 
How is it the slave States of our great country have 
clone so much more for the glory of the United States 
with only one-third of the inhabitants than the free 
States have done with double the people? How 
is it that the slave States have so steadily increased 
their exportations from the adoption of the Consti- 
tution to 1860 ? The exportation is the only spring 
that keeps a country alive. How is it that the ex- 
portations of the slave States amount to about $246,- 
597,262, annually, while that of the free States was 
only about $69,622,298? See how constant the 
increase of the great staple of this country was from 
1800 to 1860. In 1800 the slave States produced 
35,000 bales of cotton only. In 1860, they raised 
4,300,000, and they increased double as fast the last 
ten years, as they had ever done before. 

Tell me how this come to be so, if slavery is such 



202 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

a great moral, political, financial, and social curse ? 
How come it that over 2,500,000 square miles of the 
best and most productive land in the known world 
has been almost entirely abandoned, consequent 
on the emancipation of the negro slaves ? Why is 
it that every tropical country on the globe, where 
slave labor was necessarily used, has been at once 
ruined and almost lost to the human family, on the 
freedom of the negro, and all the black races of those 
climes at once reverted back into demoralization 
and barbarism, from a good state of civilization ; and 
the country from a high state of cultivation, wealth, 
and prosperity to utter ruin, if the freedom of the 
negro race be such a great blessing to the human 
family, and especially to the negroes ? Examine the 
few statistics I have given, and the abolition wit- 
nesses I have adduced (of which I have enough such 
to make a volume yet in my possession) and throw off 
all your party bias, decide quickly, for national 
ruin is at our doors. The separation of the Union, or 
the emancipation of slaves in this great country, will 
be nearly equally ruinous. A dissolution of the 
Union will damn all the free States, and end our 
hopes in this world. And the emancipation of all 
slaves, will blast the whole nation for all time to 
come, just as sure as God lives and records the acts 
of men. 

Look at Mexico, Central America, New Granada, 
Venezuela, Ecuador, British Guiana, Dutch Guiana, 
French Guiana, and all the British and French West 
India Islands, in which there is now turned out wild 
nearly 2,600,000 square miles, of the best land in 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 203 

the world; and many millions of human beings re- 
duced by. it from a good degree of civilization, and 
a high state of prosperity and usefulness in the world, 
to the deepest state of degradation and ruin known 
on the globe, of which I have given some account in 
former chapters, and have now proved what I said 
to be far more true than stated by the best evidence 
the world can produce. 

Governor Wood of Ohio, who was an anti-slavery 
man, visited Jamaica in 1853, and said of the negroes 
there — 

" Since the blacks have been liberated, they have become 
indolent, insolent, degraded, and dishonest. They are a rude, 
beastly set of vagabonds, lying naked about the streets, as 
filthy as the Hottentots, and I believe worse. On getting to 
the wharf of Kingston, the first thing the blacks, of both sexes, 
'perfectly naked, come swarming about the boat, and would 
dive for small pieces of coin that were thrown by the passengers. 
On entering the city, the stranger is annoyed to death by the 
black beggars at every step, and you must often show them 
your pistol, or an uplifted cane, to rid yourself of their impor- 
tunities." 

I clipped the above from a western paper, and have 
no doubt of its authenticity. I was at Kingston in 
1856, and can testify to the very truth of Governor 
Wood's statement. Now, what ought to be our 
punishment for the crime of attempting the eman- 
cipation of the black slaves of this country ? If we 
advocate their freedom with all this ruin to the 
human race staring us in the face, with its blighting, 
devastating, and diabolical ruinous effects upon the 
blacks, it at once casts us loose from the moorings 



20-i AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

of civilization and safety, into a lake of idleness, 
where there is no anchorage for our earthly hopes. 

In the struggle between slavery and anti-slavery 
parties, the church has already lost its winning and 
saving powers, and also the Christian ministry that 
was ordained in heaven by the Eternal himself, to 
guide the ship of the Moral Government of God in 
the world, as set forth in the Scriptures of truth. 
There is every evidence that is necessary to satisfy 
any lover of the Union {Christianity) that God in- 
tended this great country for one universal Union, 
as a counterpart (in form), of his own everlasting 
Kingdom, for our good as his chosen people, and for 
the salvation of as many of the African race as our 
Heavenly Father might see proper to intrust us with, 
for our servants, for the .good of both paces — not 
only for our good and that of Africa, but that the 
whole civilized world might see and know his peo- 
ple, through the great blessings of a universal 
Union, were capable of seli'-government, and that they 
could govern themselves. 

The whole civilized world were upon tiptoe of 
wonderment at our great prosperity and glory — that 
so great, happy, and prosperous a nation should be 
governed better than any other on the globe, without 
kingly or military power. The Hon. John Quincv 
Adams told them how it was, and that the strength 
of this great nation " was not in the righf (the arm), 
"but in the hearth That is, in the affections and love 
for each other; and that very moment we appealed 
to the arm instead of the heart, our government was 
gone, or was no more than burnt flax, as a Constitu- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 205 

tional Union, and we at once became a monarchical 
despotism, and will never be anything else unless we 
return to oar first love. As a free nation we are now 
without a God (and have no right to appeal to him 
as the source and fountain of all love, and the only 
source of peace and union), unless we return to our 
loyalty to his throne, as set forth by Christ and his 
holy apostles. 

Ministers of the Gospel, think of this before you 
preach any more war sermons from your pulpits, or 
present any more Sharpe's rifles and military swords 
before your altars (that were dedicated to Almighty 
God in love and holiness for his service only), and' 
exhort your people no more to rush to the field to 
spill your brothers' blood. I say, think of your 
legitimate calling, and take no more steps for the 
destruction of this great government, whose strength 
was in the "hearts" of the people and not in their 
arms, until you can show us some precept or example 
for such a course in the New Testament Scriptures. 
God will hold you responsible to his moral govern- 
ment for your conduct in this war. You were called, 
if called 'at all, to deal out love and mercy to all the 
people, as your great Progenitor did. While ho is 
your example, he will be your God, and no longer. 
War never did nor never can produce a union of 
"hearts" for war is of the devil, and union is of 
God. Paul, the great apostle and ambassador of 
Jesus Christ, never presented any military swords or 
guns at the altars dedicated to Almighty God, nor 
recommended them anywhere else, but said — 
18 



206 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

" Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, 
give him drink ; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on 
his head." — Romans xii. 20. 

" Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good." 
21. 

" Then said Jesus unto him : Put up again thy sword into 
his place ; for all they that take the sword, shall perish with 
the sword." — Matt. xxvi. 52. 

In the above verses we have both example and 
precept. But in the following we have the denuncia- 
tion of all such preachers who recommend the sword 
to spill their brother's blood. 

" Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape 
the damnation of hell ?" — Matt, xxiii. 33. 

This is a terrible denunciation, but is it more ter- 
rible than this bloody civil war, that this great nation 
has been plunged into by abolition gospel preachers ? 
Did those Scribes and Pharisees deserve such a denun- 
ciation any more than those preachers who have turned 
away from teaching the way of life, peace, and union ; 
and glory in spilling the blood of their fellow men, 
and not only their fellow men, but their own race 
and blood? And yet with all the pretensions of 
righteousness that the Scribes and Pharisees ever 
feigned. By this course you have destroyed the 
fraternal power of love, in this great nation, reduced 
us from the lofty state of universal union, which is 
of God, to universal opposition, malice, and civil 
war, and saturated the soil of this glorious country 
with rivers of ooce fraternal blood, by the sword. 

" Ye blind guides ! which strain at a gnat, and swallow a 
camel." 

" Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." — Matt. 
xxiii, 24, 38. 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 207 

Yet, abolition gospel preachers, you have closed 
your eyes to the truths plainly set forth in the New- 
Testament (see 2d chapter), you have blindfolded 
yourselves by the god of this world and taught 
doctrines in direct opposition to the gospel, as taught 
by the Apostle Paul. You have not only done, and 
recommended evil for evil, but you have done evil 
for good. "Behold, your house is left unto you 
desolate." And instead of being a savor of life unto 
life, you have been a savor of death unto death, and 
by your doings, ruin, desolation, consternation, and 
mourning cover our once glorious and happy land. 
Even now, if the church would return to God, and 
repent, and forsake their allegiance to the king of 
darkness, our glorious union may yet be restored, 
and peace and love be hallowed throughout our land. 

APPENDIX. 

If the President of the United States has any 
desire to restore peace and union to our distracted 
and ruined nation, and intends to gratify that desire, 
he will Tiave to make up his mind to restore it just 
as God gave it unto us, or he will not live to see 
peace and union restored on this great continent. 
If slavery had been morally wrong, it would never 
have been here. God himself produced the circum- 
stances, which made slavery not only necessary, but 
an insurmountable necessity. I have clearly shown ' 
from Divine Kevelation, that the Supreme Being 
not only "sanctioned" slavery, but commanded that 
a particular race should be made slaves for life with- 



208 AFEICAN SLAVEKY. 

out limit to time. And the fact that this great 
country was so blessed under slave labor, prosperity 
having crowned our every lawful effort and enter- 
prise from end to end, and from side to side, the 
truth of God run and was glorified. Gospel efforts 
blazed everywhere, and both races shouted and 
praised God aloud throughout the land. No people 
on the globe was ever so blessed as the slaves, for 
they excelled all others in unmolested happiness. 
When we see slavery such a great blessing to this 
whole nation, and even more to the free States than 
the slave States, and equally so to the whole civilized 
world. To know this fact, we only have to look at 
the condition of nearly all Europe at this time, as 
well as our own; all of which troubles and ruin 
has been caused by the attack upon slavery in this 
country. Yea, all civilized Europe is now frowning 
down upon us for this most ungodly attack upon the 
divine institution of negro 'slavery. With all this 
in view, and pressing upon us on every side; will 
the President, and so many good people in the free 
States close their eyes against the enormous facts, 
and still persevere to glorify infidelity and the devil, 
and sink this great nation into ruin? For as God 
lives, wo shall reap just what we sow. If we sow 
union, peace, and love, we shall reap the same. If 
we go on in this God-forbidden course, and free the 
slaves of the South by force of arms, I have only to 
ask you to inquire of Mexico, Central America, 
Venezuela, New Granada, British and French West 
Indies, to know what we shall come to soon. 

You say there is no danger in this country, for it 



AFEICAN SLAVEEY. 209 

is different from all others. That the freedom of the 
slaves will improve everything in the entire con- 
federation. So said Great Britain and France, and 
so thought the planters in the West Indies, and said 
it would be cheaper and better for them to hire the 
negroes than it would be to own them; and many of 
the planters went in for it, believing they could hire 
them at less cost than it took to support them as 
slaves, and thought one hired freed or free negro 
would do as much work as two slaves. But O, 
what a sad mistake they found they had made when 
too late. What was their consternation and disap- 
pointment when they learned that the freed negro 
would not work at all for wages or love, and that 
his only idea of freedom was to lie about in the 
hot sun, and do nothing but sing and eat yams, as a 
Cincinnati Journal said of the Brown County negro 
colony, "too lazy to play." 

Inquire of England .how many millions pounds 
sterling annually has been distilled from the brains 
and muscles of her white people, in consequence of 
emancipation in her provinces. She will tell you 
the $100,000,000 to pay for the negro freedom was 
not much ; but the losses since to the government, 
and the want of the articles produced on those 
Islands, had doubled the price of almost all the 
tropical articles, and vastly raised the price of most 
all other necessaries of life, so that her poor have 
been oppressed beyond calculation. And what for ? 
has it done anybody any good anywhere on the 
globe, of any color ? Not a single instance can be 
found ; but it has struck a fatal blow to the wants 
18* 



210 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

of all civilized people on this verdant earth. Is 
that all ? If it was we might put up with it. But it 
has sunk the black race (who had been brought up 
to a good state of civilization by being taken there 
from the most degraded land of barbarism on which 
the sun ever shone and made slaves to white mas- 
ters) down to the lowest state of their ancestors. 
Eead the history of Dehomi's kingdom in Africa, 
and you will learn from what a depth of ruin they 
were taken and civilized by slavery, and the depth 
of ruin ; degradation, and barbarism, they have again 
been consigned to by emancipation. 

Now if President Lincoln, or his host of followers, 
with all the abolition gospel preachers, who seem to 
think that the emancipation of the slaves would be 
the greatest boon ever bestowed upon mankind, will 
only weigh this negro question in' view of all the 
true concomitant circumstances, without prejudice or 
favor, except for the general good of all mankind, they 
will doubtless make up their minds to restore the 
Union as it was first formed, with slavery unmolested 
in all the States who may desire it. Thus God 
blessed us with the Union, and thus he has blessed us 
with the greatest prosperity ever known on the face 
of the earth. And unless it is thus restored, no man 
now living will ever see it restored, or enjoy union, 
peace, and happiness again on the face of this con- 
tinent. 

Many seem to have little or no respect for the 
rights and happiness of white men, and for the sake 
of the restoration of the Union, I am willing to admit 
that u We, the (white) peojrte" deserve all the foretold, 



AFKICAN SLAVERY. 211 

and untold ruin which is now upon us, for we had 
become a proud, high-headed, and stiff-necked peo- 
ple ; yet the happiest people that ever had a being. 
But as those ministers and people seem willing to 
destroy hundreds of thousands of " the people 11 by the 
sword, for the sake of placing the negro race 
on an equality with " the people" or a little higher, 
will they not try to restore the Union as it was, 
for the good of that poor unfortunate race (the 
negroes), who have been so useful, and have so 
multiplied the glories of this world, as slaves? Go 
to Mexico, Central America, the Guianas, New Gran- 
ada, Ecuador, the West Indies, or any spot on the 
earth where the negroes have been freed, and made 
equal to the white man, and you will see that you 
are a thousand times more cruel to the black race, 
than any system of slavery ever was ; especially that 
of this country. 

I never saw a good slave yet who was not inex- 
pressibly happier than any free negroes I saw in 
New Granada, and just as far above them in moral 
standing. Yet the black race there, or in Jamaica, 
or Hayti, were just as good before emancipation as 
our slaves are ; but look at them now. Now, for 
the sake, and in the name of the descendants of Africa, 
stop your mad attack upon that institution of God, 
devised for the good of both races, that his name may 
yet again be glorified in this world. 

I will say again that, if all those who have been 
ordained, or licensed to preach the glorious gospel 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, had stuck to 
their legitimate calling, and followed the example of 



212 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

their great exemplar St. Paul, we should now be at 
peace, and the Union would not only exist in name, 
but in fact, and the whole nation would be as a band 
of brethren held together by the strong bonds of 
love to God, and each other. Yea our great strength 
would still be in the " heart" and not in the battle- 
field. 

"What will future generations think of the church 
in the middle of the nineteenth century, when his- 
tory shall hand our past glories down to them, 
when they shall compare it with their ruined con- 
dition ? God will hold the church of the present day 
responsible for the ruin that has overtaken this 
nation, which he had called into existence, to be as 
a city set upon a hill, that all the world might see 
that this people were capable of self-government, 
and glorify his great name. But alas, we have 
fallen into the valley. 

I have written the last four or five pages as an 
appendix to this chapter, since -I had finished, to try 
to get the people to see what was going on around 
them. And how they are being deceived by the 
ungodly protestations of newspapers, and public 
speakers. ISTo falsehood seems too monstrous, no 
slander too malignant and bitter for them to belch 
forth to an anxious people, and they have done it 
with such vehemence and boldness, that many thou- 
sands of good people have been made to believe 
that all they have said was very truth. 

This publication may end my liberty; if so, I 
shall have the consolation of knowing that I have 
used my little talent in trying to expose the true 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 213 

traitors to this great and glorious government, whose 
power and strength was in the " hearts 11 of the people, 
and not in the arm. That they might not now blind 
the people by a great hurrah for the Union, while in 
their very souls they know they have destroyed it . 
And now they are wasting hundreds of millions, de- 
stroying hundreds of thousands of lives, and demor- 
alizing and beggaring the whole nation, to hide their 
sins, and make the people believe somebody else 
did it. 

I am now done, and doubt not but I have made 
many errors on unimportant points, as I have writ- 
ten much from memory of history, but on the main 
question before me I know I am right. I hope the 
statistics I have given will receive proper attention. 
Please look over slight and unimportant errors. If 
you differ with me on the main question, don't slan- 
der me by calling me a traitor, for I hold myself 
second to no one in this whole nation for true love 
and loyalty to the Constitution and the Union of the 
whole thirty-four States. God knows I am sincere ; 
therefore let us have your objections in black and 
white, that I may be able, to compare and weigh the 
whole matter. If I have misunderstood the quota- 
tions I have made from the Bible, I hope some true 
and faithful divine will show me my error, as Christ 
taught "Mcodemus," and not denounce me as a 
traitor. You must not understand me above to in- 
clude all the preachers of the Gospel, for God knows 
I don't. I hope and believe that there is yet salt 
•enough in the ministry to save the Church from 
a complete overthrow. I only mean to include 



214 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

such as Beecher ; Clieever ; Furness, Thompson, and 
others. 

Before I crive this work into the hands of the 

- 

printer, I must make a little reply to an article in 
the New York Methodist of the 13th Dec. ; 1862. I 

had finished the chapter long since, except some 

tions, but as it is not yet published, I will add 
a few remarks on this article of Prof. Cairnes on the 
slave power. He is an Englishman writing on the 
American question. The article before me seems to 

r. Cairnes' second on the subject. The first I 
did not see. I only wish to call attention to one or 
two points in the letter before me. 

Mr. Cairnes says, since emancipation in the West 
Indies, "small proprietors have increased an hun- 
dred fold. 71 u Within the last fifteen years, notwith- 
standing the high price of land, and the low rate of 

3, the small proprietors of Barbadoes, m< 
them formerly slaves, have increased from 1100 to 
8587." I will say that I have no objection to the 

- statement, so far as it is true, and I will not 
say that any part of it is false, but shall ask a few 

ions on some points before I get through. 
Prof. Cairn-,- to be writing in favor of uni- 

I emancipation in the U:. evidently 

trying to make the impression that emancipation has 
been a great benefit in the "West Indies, by infer- 
without saying .so. Ilis first expression in- 
cludes the West India Islands, where universal 

om has been granted, and then gives the Island 
of Barbad d illustration, and says, "the small* 

proprietors have increased in the last fifteen years 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 215 

V 

from 1100 to 3537, not-withstanding the high price 
of land and low rate of wages." I regret that I 
have not the statistics of that island at hand, and 
therefore can only say that if the land has increased 
in price on that island, it is very dissimilar from all 
the rest of the Antilles. It is true that the small 
proprietorships have increased an hundred-fold on 
all the West India Islands and in all States, where- 
ever universal emancipation of the negroes have 
been granted, both in Europe and America. But 
who have been benefited, or where is the spot of 
land that lias been improved by it, and what has 
been the result? Just turn back to the statistics I 
have given in this chapter, and you will see desola- 
tion, degradation, demoralization, idleness, laziness, 
licentiousness, and drunkenness, have been the only 
results. Wiry did not Prof. Cairnes tell exactly 
what he meant, and give some other evidence of 
good by freedom, besides the great increase of small 
(negro) proprietorships ? All who know much about 
negroes, are aware of their disposition to have a 
home of their own, that they may have a spot 
from which no man can move them, or interfere with 
their habits. Eead the history of Jacob and Mill, 
commencing on page 141, and you will have a com- 
plete illustration of those small proprietorships in 
Barbadoes, so boastingly chronicled by Prof. Cairnes. 
A vast majority of those small proprietorships cover 
from a quarter to about one or one and a half acres 
of land, all of which has the appearance of laziness, 
ruin, and desolation. There is not the slightest ap- 
pearance of industry of any kind, much less enter- 



216 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

prise, throughout those small proprietorships, and 
they look more like habitations for animals of the 
reptile order, than for human beings. These small 
proprietorships are general from Mexico east, 
throughout the countries, wherever emancipation 
of the negro race has been effected. 

Why did not Professor Cairnes state the good 
results of freedom by that immense increase of pro- 
prietors? Because he knew of the degradation, 
demoralization, and ruin, to the entire negro race 
caused by it, and the almost complete stoppage of 
every kind of business, and total stoppage of the 
exports of every product that requires any labor to 
produce it. He says, "notwithstanding the high 
price of land, and low rate of wages." This seems 
to be said to impress the mind with the idea that 
there is industry and drive-ahead enterprise among 
the freed negroes. That, notwithstanding, those two 
obstacles since emancipation, the proprietors have 
increased from 1100 to 3537 on the Island of Bar- 
badoes. 

In the first place, it is not true that wages are low. 
The planters would pay any price for hands, but 
wages, fto matter how high, will not bring them. 
For they will not engage themselves for seasonable 
labor for love nor money. When emancipation was 
effected in the West Indies, planting almost entirely 
ceased, and was only barely revived by the importa- 
tion of Coolies from China, who were kidnapped and 
forced from their native land and sold as slaves in 
Jamaica and other Islands for eight years ; nearly 
one-half of whom die before the end of the eight 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 217 

years' service, and but few have life enough in them 
to enable them to procure a livelihood. Hard labor 
in the hot sun in the torrid zones is ruinous to their 
physical health, and nearly all of them are brought 
to a premature end by the cruelties of hard-hearted 
opponents of negro slavery. And all this to allow 
Sambo to lounge and bask in idleness under the man- 
go-tree, who was greatly improved both physically and 
morally by slavery, and was -incalculably useful to the 
whole civilized world, whose usefulness has been 
totally lost to the human family, and the slaves 
suddenly reduced to heathenism and barbarism by 
emancipation from slavery to good white masters, 
and the world is taxed at least fifty per cent, on all 
they consume to encourage Sambo's lazy habits. 
This is abolition righteousness and emancipation 
consistency. One of the greatest blessings of the 
human family must be forever lost, and the greatest 
civilizer yet known to mankind forever abolished 
and blotted out, whose place cannot now, nor never 
will be supplied in this world. Methinks, I almost 
see old Apollyon sitting in his big armed antislavery 
chair as placid as a Turk smoking opium, while he 
views his servants accomplishing so much glory for 
his kingdom by negro emancipation. 

Prof. Cairnes speaks of high priced lands. I will 
only say that if the land has raised, it is contrary to 
all other West India Islands. All travellers on 
those Islands whom I have consulted, tell us that 
the best of lands can be bought for a mere song. 
In Jamaica two-thirds of all the sugar estates have 
been totally abandoned, and one-half of the other 
19 ° 



218 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

third partly. Every sugar plantation on the Island 
of St. Domingo has been long since totally aban- 
doned, from where they exported nearly 200,000,- 

000 pounds of sugar annually before emancipation. 
And if slavery had been maintained there, no doubt 
they would now export 400,000,000 pounds instead 
of not now one pound, While Cuba, where slavery 
has been continued, has been constantly advancing 
in prosperity and civilization. 

Prof. Cairnes declares that white and black people 
are equal, that both alike will only work under com- 
pulsion, and this he says after the experiment had 
been tried for so many long years, and proved a 
total failure wherever it has been tried. 

Eev. Dr. Channing was considered a great man, 
and he put forth the following prophecy in 1838, 
while the emancipation bill was before Parliament. 

1 have no doubt he thought he was right, for the 
experiment had not been made in any of the pro- 
vinces of Great Britian. The majority of Parliament 
entertained the same opinions, notwithstanding the 
total ruin of the Island of St. Domingo, and the 
complete demoralization and ruin of the whole black 
race of that island by emancipation some thirty years 
prior, and was then fully demonstrated. But the Eev. 
Dr. Channing, like the Eev. Drs. Cheever and Beecher 
of this day, was disposed to make an apology for 
the failure in Hayti, and other French Provinces, 
Ilaytians having freed themselves by a revolution 
and complete massacre of the whole population after 
the emancipation bill had passed, therefore the Eev. 
Dr. Channing and all the other English abolitionists 



AFKICAN SLAVERY. 219 

thought if the}?- were set free, and placed on an equal- 
ity, the white population would be greatly benefited. 
Therefore Dr. Channing made the following decla- 
ration : — 

" The planters, in general, would suffer little, if at all, from 
emancipation. This change would make them richer rather 
than poorer. One would think, indeed, from the common 
language on the subject, that the negroes were to be annihi- 
lated by being set free ; that the whole labor of the South was 
to be destroyed by a single blow. But the colored men, when 
freed, will not vanish from the soil. He will stand there with 
the same muscles as before, only strung anew by liberty ; with 
the same limbs to toil, and with stronger motives to toil than 
before. He will work from hope, not from fear ; will work for 
himself, not for others ; and, unless all the principles of human 
nature are reversed under a black skin, he will work better 
than hefore. We believe that agriculture will revive, our worn- 
out soils will be renewed, and the whole country assume a 
brighter aspect under free labor" 

Eev. Dr. Channing spoke very lightly, and con- 
temptuously of the opinions of those who knew that 
human nature was totally " reversed under a black 
skin," just as all the abolitionists treat us here who 
have sufficiently investigated the nature of the white 
and black races, to know that human nature is entirely 
and completely "reversed under a black skin." The 
Rev. Dr. Channing Avas told what the result would be, 
but he and the British House of Lords would not be- 
lieve it, until they struck the fatal blow upon the in- 
terest of that entire nation, and all other civilized 
people. And now, if the blow should be struck 
here, and the negroes freed, it will throw civiliza- 
tion back five hundred years, and forever end the 
hopes of white men for self-government and per- 



220 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

feet liberty. It is strange that men will not see the 
ruin that will follow the success of abolitionism in 
this once happy country. that I could open the 
eyes of the blind, who are being led into ruin by 
designing men ! 

I don't know with what amount of literary know- 
ledge Prof. Cairnes may have been possessed, but one 
of two things is evident. He either has no know- 
ledge of negro human nature, or the teachings of 
inspired truth, and the immense disasters to the busi- 
ness of the whole civilized world, with the complete 
overthrow of the last hope of civilization for the 
African race, and their everlasting degradation from 
civilization outside of Africa by emancipation ; or 
he is an infidel or anti-Christian, and is aiming at 
the destruction of the latter. For it cannot be pos- 
sible that he is so ignorant of the degradation to the 
negro race in all the British and French Provinces, 
or West Indies, the financial, social, and political ruin 
to all the white inhabitants of those Islands, and 
great embarrassment to the mother countries by the 
freedom of the negroes. 

The Islands of Barbadoes and Trinidad are con- 
stantly brought forward by abolitionists to show the 
advantages of negro freedom. They don't tell us of 
the stringent laws of those miniature islands, and 
the immense number of Coolies whom they have 
been compelled to import from China, and make 
them slaves, on the Island of Trinidad, to keep up 
their producing operations. Nor do they tell of the 
laws of Barbadoes, that compels the negroes to drag 
a heavy block, chained to them, for refusing to work 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 221 

when work is offered to them, and thus they are 
punished worse than their masters ever punished 
them for idleness. 

I will give one more table that will satisfy every 
reader that what I say about Prof. Cairnes is about 
true. In 1800 the West Indies exported 17,000,000 
lbs. of cotton, and this country exported 17,789,803 
lbs. This was after cotton had nearly ceased to be 
cultivated in St. Domingo and other French colo- 
nies, or they would have been ahead of the United 
States that year. In 1810 all the West Indies ex- 
ported 866,157 lbs. of cotton; the United States 
exported 743,941,061. Is this not enough to satisfy 
every common-sense man that Prof. Cairnes must 
have known better, and that the American system is 
the best in the world ? Is negro slavery a social, 
political and moral evil, and negro freedom a 
blessing ? 

The abolitionists say that if there never had been 
any slaves in the United States, we sbould now be 
at peace throughout our own land. That may be 
so ; but not so certain as it would have been if we 
never had had any abolitionists among us. If there 
never, had been any negroes, we should not have had 
any slaves ; if there never had been any money, we 
should never have bad any pickpockets nor high- 
way robbers ; if we never have had any marriages, 
we should never have had any abusing and aban- 
doning of wives. But God made negroes, money, 
and instituted slavery and the marriage contract — 
but he did not make the abolitionists. Therefore, 
19* 



222 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

they have been produced by the other great spirit, 
who is the father of lies and all bloody wars. 

I will repeat, that if I had been called upon (by an 
irrevocable decree) to have destroyed this great 
moral government by the people, and to have raised 
up in its place the worst despotism ever known on 
the earth, and if I failed in the first effort death was 
to have been the penalty, I should have taken the 
very course the republican party did in 1860 and 
'61, and should have pursued the very plans they 
have pursued to this day, and I should have had no 
fear of death by the decree. 

God intended this government to be as near like 
what he created man for, as it was possible for man 
to be in his fallen state, and established the Christian 
churches as safety valves ; but many of the Chris- 
tian ministry, whom he ordained and sent forth as 
moral teachers and pioneers of civilization, have 
turned away from that holy calling, and have sub- 
stituted Sharpe's rifles, the cannon-ball, and the 
sword for the Gospel of our blessed Lord, and prayed 
that they might swim in rivers of blood of their own 
brethren in the Church, to break up and completely 
destroy an institution established by God himself for 
the mutual good of the black and white races in the 
world ; and now the consequences are upon us. Will 
not those preachers do as Judas did, that peace may 
come to our land ? 



CHAPTEE IY. 

Can the White or Anglo-American Race, and the African or 
Negro Race, live together on a political, social, and domestic 
equality in the United States of North America, and how ? 
If so, would it be justified by the laws of Nature or of Na- 
ture's God? 

Human or civil laws are changeable, and can be 
suited to the majority of a republic, or the whim or 
caprice of a king or despot. The laws of Nature 
vary somewhat, but the fundamental principles are 
unchangeable and entirely beyond the control of 
man. Wherever the civil laws or human practices 
in any way interfere with the laws of Nature, they 
interfere with the laws of Omnipotence, and the 
penalty is severe and interminable; and woe be 
unto that government or people who shall attempt 
to change or interfere with those laws, only to ex- 
pose, cultivate, dress, and improve them. On these 
doctrines we have had line upon line, and precept 
upon precept, and no man or woman can in this day 
of light and knowledge plead ignorance of them 
and their penalties. They may plead ignorance of 
human or civil laws, for they are changed by the 
caprice of parties, but the laws of Nature have un- 
dergone no change since the fall of man. Though 
miraculous additions have been made to the variety, 

( 223 ) 



224 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

there has been no change in the fundamentals for 
nearly 6000 years. 

I have said enough in former chapters on the 
origination of the now African race, the descend- 
ants of Canaan, the confusion of tongues, and the 
separation of the human family, from the building 
of Babel. There was but one family and one tongue 
prior to that day. From that miraculous event all 
the different tribes, races, and nations of the earth 
sprang, except the Canaanites, now the African race, 
and the Ishmaelites, now the Bedouin Arabs, or the 
Arabs of the desert of Arabia ; and those tribes who 
sprang from a mixture of blood with them, by the 
true descendants of Shem and Japheth, all of whom 
are accursed races to a greater or less extent. Canaan, 
as I have shown in former chapters, was condemned 
to perpetual slavery; from that event springs a 
decree or edict- in the laws of the code of Nature. 
Abraham trespassed upon that law when he yielded 
to the overtures of his doubting wife, and took 
Hagar to his bosom, who was doubtless a descendant 
of Canaan, whose whole race was accursed to per- 
petual degradation and slavery. See Gen. ix. 20-27. 
To show us that any matrimonial intercourse or 
connection with them was divinely forbidden, we 
have the Arabs of the desert, as living monuments 
of the displeasure of Almighty Qod to any mixture 
of blood between the pure descendants of Shem and 
Japheth and the descendants of Canaan, the grand- 
son of Noah, who doubtless was accursed for making 
fun of his old grandfather, while laboring under a 
misfortune. The Africans are living monuments of 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 225 

Jehovah's displeasure towards children who badly 
treat their parents. They ; the Canaanites, may be 
improved, but will never be capable of self-govern- 
ment ; and slavery is their only hope among men. 
I have said enough on these points in previous 
chapters. The above is sufficient to show that cer- 
tain unchangeable laws of human nature on which 
I now propose to give a few thoughts cannot be 
broken with impunity. I have said enough to show 
that all men are not created equal. 

Then the question arises, Can the black and white 
man live together on a social, political, and domestic 
equality ? and if they could, would such an associa- 
tion be sanctioned by the divine law or the laws of 
Nature ? Let us look at this without prejudice or 
favor, and with a single eye to the glory of God and 
the good of all mankind. It is conceded on all 
sides that liberty of conscience, peace, popular 
government, and union, with great physical health 
and longevity, are the greatest blessings of God to 
mankind. This being conceded, then it must also 
be that man's first duty is to cultivate those blessings 
above all else that is human, and expel every in- 
truder upon those laws that are life guards of our 
physical and social salvation. The laws of Nature 
are to some extent protected by both divine and 
civil law. For instance, the Sabbath day is neces- 
sary for the health and longevity of man. Gluttonous 
and intemperance of every kind is prohibited, with 
intermarriages between the whites and blacks, row- 
dyism, and all overt extravagances that overtax the 
physical strength of man. Human laws inflict cor- 



226 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

poreal punishments, fines, and imprisonments upon 
man for transgressing of many of the laws of Nature, 
but the laws of Nature inflict more terrible punish- 
ments for disobedience to her requirements, all of 
which are imperative and unchangeable. The pen- 
alties are bodily afflictions, poverty, degradation, 
loathsome diseases, premature death, or long sickly 
lives. I presume all will agree that human ingenuity 
ought to be exerted to prevent any and all such ex- 
travagances, which are so fatal to the good of man- 
kind. No law could be too severe, and no punish- 
ment too extreme for that man or set of men who 
would establish places to promote disobedience to 
the laws that will entail with certainty ruin to the 
peace and happiness of mankind. 

Now if I should succeed in showing that the eman- 
cipation of all the slaves in this country will place 
the negro race on a political, and an attempt to social 
equality, and that that system will produce a diseased, 
sickly, short-lived, and unhappy race of men and 
women, would it not be our duty to close every 
avenue in our power that leads to such fatal results ? 
I have already alluded to the mulatto race, in a 
former chapter, as being very weak, sickly, and 
short-lived on the general. There is not the slight- 
est danger of a general or universal amalgamation 
of blood between the Anglo-American and African 
races in this country, but if the. universal emancipa- 
tion of the slaves should take place, enough would 
be found among the Saxons to equal the Africans in 
number, who from various causes would be reduced 
to a level with Africans, which causes might be 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 227 

dissipation, crime, and lazy habits, and who would 
feel more at home, perhaps, and happier among the 
black race than among the whites. The negroes 
being free and consequently on a civil equality and 
in competition with the whites, the lower classes of 
the Saxons would unite their interests with the Afri- 
cans, in competition with the higher order of the 
Anglo-Americans, and the result would be inter- 
marriages or mixing of blood in some way between 
the negroes and lower orders of the whites. This 
would result mainly from interest or a combination 
between the two, to try to compete with their supe- 
riors. This would produce in a very short space of 
time an immense population of mulattoes, who are, 
with, but few exceptions, a very sickly and short- 
lived race, especially in the northern climes of this 
country. This population would rapidly increase 
at first. The antipathies between them and the pure 
whites would be too great and bitter for them to 
dwell together, and insurrections would be inevi- 
table between the two races. This would not be a 
sectional strife, as the strife now is, and a complete 
extermination of the weaker party would be the 
inevitable result. 

Suppose this should not turn out to be the case ; 
then say the amalgamationists, we should all soon be 
of one color, and one people ; just what they (the aboli- 
tionists) have been laboring for so many years, in 
order to end the prejudice of color, that our great 
nation might be at peace. This I admit would be a 
good thing if it was compatible with the righteous 
laws of nature and nature's God ; and a promotion 



228 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

of civilization, and a general genuine physical health 
and long life should be the result. But if the con- 
trary should be the inevitable consequence, then 
your whole scheme of peace, union, and happiness 
falls to the ground. The scheme is so incompatible 
with all the blessings of union, peace, tranquillity, 
harmony, and righteousness, that it is surprising that 
any man or woman could be found in this land of 
schools and science so led by wild fanaticism, who 
would embrace such a doctrine for one moment; 
yet it is even so. Let us examine it and see how it 
will stand the test of the unchangeable laws of human 
nature. 

It has been two hundred and forty two years since 
the first cargo of African slaves landed in this coun- 
try, and legal records show that laws were passed in 
some of the colonies nearly two hundred years ago 
to prevent a spurious color being made between the 
white and black races. I mention this to show that 
mulattoes must have been produced that far back, 
or those laws would not have been passed. Now if 
mulattodom commenced so nearly with the first 
introduction of negro slavery in this country, how 
is it that there are so few mulatto families ? Is it 
not strange that they are so much less prolific than 
either the pure whites or negroes ? You may bring 
together in matrimony two individuals of any two 
separate nations of the world of the same pure color, 
and you will find that their children will not only 
be very healthy and long lived, but exceedingly 
prolific, generation after generation, through centuries 
of time ; but if you marry the pure white and negro 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 229 

people together, they will be as prolific as any others, 
but their children will, three to one, be puny, sickly, 
and short lived, and cease to multiply almost if not 
altogether by the third generation, and even the 
first produces very sparingly, with few exceptions, 
unless those children return directly to the white or 
black of the pure colors. But that is even more 
uncommon than breeding between the pure black 
or white. 

The better class of mulattoes are as much preju- 
diced against the negroes as the whites are, and was 
it not for circumstances that force them in company 
with the negro, the antipathies would be far greater. 
The negroes are very jealous of the mulattoes, 
because of the improvement they see in their color 
and general appearance. The whites know they 
would sink themselves just as much by an inter- 
course with the mulattoes as with the negroes, there- 
fore a return by the mulattoes to either of the pure 
bloods is almost entirely prohibited by a law that 
cannot be controlled by man unless he foils to a level 
with the beast. 

The amalgamationists say, this prejudice of human 
colors is very wicked, and ought to be done away 
with altogether. I say it is not. The prejudice of 
color is suffered by our great Maker, if not divinely 
produced, to prevent spurious mixtures of colors or 
blood; he having in his providence produced the 
colors and appearances of these two distinct races of 
men, for the good of the "people. 11 The divine dis- 
pleasure is so clearly apparent in the mixture of the 
blood of these two distinct races, that I am at a loss 
20 



230 AFRICAN SLAVERY, 

in some cases to understand how Christian men can 
be found who defend it, and even advocate it ; but 
in others I am not disappointed, for the devil hates 
all that is good, and it is his business to advocate any 
and every principle that is in any way calculated to 
demoralize society, or depopulate this part of the 
world; therefore infidelity and abolitionism run 
almost parallel. It is a mistake that %th ere are a 
greater ratio of mulattoes produced among slaves 
than there are among free people of color. But the 
South is more cou genial to their health and longe- 
vity than the North. Now, these are natural laws 
that no power under heaven can change. Though 
all the civil and uncivilized nations and tribes of the 
earth may unite for that purpose, they could not 
change one "jot or tittle" of those laws, for they are 
unchangeable and irrevocable. 

Now, it being so clearly proved by circumstances 
and experience that any interference with those laws 
is fatal to the peace and happiness of our race, and 
equally so to the poor unfortunate negro, and to the 
whole human race, is it not our duty as a Christian 
and free people, to watch against and close up every 
avenue that leads to such fatal, corrupt, and demor- 
alizing results ? There is no room for a doubt that 
if there were an equal number of negroes to the white 
people in this country, and then let them be prohi- 
bited by an irrevocable decree that there should be 
no marriages except between the white and black 
races, and all sexual intercourse was prohibited 
between the white people, and all emigration to this 
country stopped, the whole country would become 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 231 

entirely depopulated in one hundred and twenty years. 
Mulattoes are a forbidden race, aud to prohibit a 
mixture of blood with the negroes by the white 
people, our great Creator has made these laws of 
nature to prohibit a new race of men being formed 
between those two very distinct races of mankind. 
He gave us the negroes for our benefit, and their 
good, and if we prove faithless to our trust, we shall 
be " whipped with many stripes." 

Those who deny these doctrines will please show 
the contrary, by pointing out unchanged mulatto 
families, who descended from the pure stock of white 
or black one hundred years ago ; I will then agree 
that there are some exceptions, but you will find 
them very scarce. 

Prof. Adams says, that the " pure mulattoes cease 
to produce altogether after the third generation, and 
that it is very common for the first generation of 
pure mulattoes to be as barren as mules, unless they 
marry with the pure white or black blood, and even 
their offsprings are mostly delicate and short-lived." 
Quarter-bloods are healthier and longer-lived than 
half-bloods, and, as they near either pure blood, they 
increase in health and length of life. If these are 
not evidences of divine prohibition of the mixing of 
blood between these two races, I don't know how 
anything on earth could be sustained by circumstan- 
tial evidence. The pure white blood is injured by 
mixing with any red, copper, or yellow tribes on the 
globe, but as they mix with those who approach 
nearer to the black or negro race, they reduce or 
degrade their issue more. 



232 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

The abolitionists attribute mulattodom to slavery. 
This is a misrepresentation. The ratio of free mu- 
lattoes in the slave States is perhaps five to one of 
the mulatto slaves. This shows how clearly eman- 
cipation increases amalgamation; and just in the 
ratio that the negroes are freed, amalgamation will 
increase. The ratio of original mulattoes born in 
the free States exceeds those born by or from slave 
women five to one. There are comparatively few 
mulattoes born from white women ; but ten, perhaps, 
in the free States to one in the slave States. These 
declarations will astonish many, for disunionists or 
abolitionists (they are almost synonymous) have 
been trying to prejudice the South by foul slander 
so many years, that good people have got to believe 
the slander. I don't wish to be understood to say 
that the people of the southern States are generally 
better than they are in the free States, for that would 
not be the truth, but I will say that the ratio of 
anti-constitutional union men, up to the Presidential 
election of 1860, in the free States were twenty to 
one of those of the slave States ; neither do I mean 
to say that the people of the free States are more li- 
centious and dishonest than the people of the slave 
States, for they are not ; therefore, the fact of the 
greater ratio of mulattoes being produced in the free 
States, is the legitimate consequence of the universal 
freedom of the negroes in those States, there being 
more loose bad men in the free States, and perhaps 
in a little greater ratio, than in the slave States. 
The city of Now York, for instance, might be called 
the great metropolis of the United States for bad 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 233 

men, and the worst of men, as well as the greatest 
commercial city of the country ; it also contains a 
very large number of the best and most upright men 
in the world. 

The idea that there is a greater ratio of mulattoes 
produced in free States than in slave States is very 
insulting to many, but if they will examine the ques- 
tion for themselves, they will soon see how far they 
have been misled by designing men and women. 
We all know there are a great many more mulattoes 
produced in the slave States than in the free, but 
you must not forget that there are about twenty 
negroes in the slave States to one in the free ; yet 
the mulattodom of the slave States is not in half 
that ratio to the free. It is well known that most 
of the Northern men who move South become the 
most ultra pro- slavers very soon after they arrive 
there, and the stronger their opposition to slavery 
was before they left here, the stronger their pro- 
slavery feelings become there. Why is it so? 
Simply because they see how they have been mis- 
led by designing men, who profess to be such great 
philanthropists. This is common on all subjects in 
dispute, with all who are honest, when they see they 
have be.en misled and deceived by their leaders. 

I will now return to the main subject of this chap- 
ter, and will give the following statistics gathered 
by the late Dr. Jesse Chickering : — 

" It appears that the blacks die in Massachusetts in a ratio 

of three to one, as compared with the whites. This state of 

things is the result of both moral and physical causes. The 

depressing influence of extreme social hardships, which no 

20* 



234 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

philanthropy can alleviate, accounts in a great measure for 
this unequal mortality, while physical causes operate perhaps 
still more to the same effect." 

Of the latter, we may learn something from a 
paper read a few years since before the Boston So- 
ciety of Natural History, by Dr. Samuel Kneeland, 
from which the following is an extract : — 

" The mulatto is often triumphantly appealed to as a proof 
that hybrid races are prolific without end. Every physician 
who has seen much practice among the mulattoes knows that 
in the first place, they are far less prolific than the blacks or 
whites — the statistics of New York State and city confirm this 
fact of daily observation ; and, in the second place, when they 
are prolific, the progeny is frail, diseased, short-lived, rarely 
arriving at robust manhood or maturity. Physicians need not 
be told of the comparatively enormous amount of scrofulous 
and deteriorated constitutions found among those hybrids. 

" The Colonization Journal furnishes some statistics with 
regard to the colored population of New York city, which 
must prove painfully interesting to all reflecting people. The 
late census showed that, while other classes of our population 
in all parts of the country were increasing in an enormous 
ratio, the colored were decreasing. In the State of New York, 
in 1840, there were fifty thousand ; in 1850, only forty-seven 
thousand. In New York city, in 1840, there were eighteen 
thousand ; in 1850, seventeen thousand. According to the 
New York City Inspector's report for the four months ending 
with October, 1853 :— 

1. The whites present marriages . . 2,230 
The colored " . 26 

2. The whites " births . . . 6,780 
The colored " 70 

3. The whites " deaths about . . 6,000 

(exclusive of 2,152 among 116,000 newly- 
arrived emigrants, and others unac- 
clirriatcd.) 
The colored exhibit deaths . . . 160 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 235 

giving a ratio of deaths among acclimated whites to colored 
persons of thirty-seven to one ; while the births are ninety- 
seven whites to one colored. The ratio of whites to colored is 
as follows : Marriages, 140 to 1 ; births, 97 to 1 ; deaths 37 to 
1. According to the nvtio of the population, the marriages 
among the whites, during this time, are three times greater than 
among the colored; the number of births among the whites 
is twice as great. In deaths, the colored exceed the white 
not only according to ratio of population, but show one hun- 
dred and sixty-five deaths to seventy-six births, or seven deaths 
to three births, more than two to one. 

" The same is true of Boston, as far as the census returns 
will enable us to judge. In Sha'ttuck's census of 1845, it ap- 
pears that in that year there were one hundred and forty-six 
less colored persons in Boston than in 1840 ; the total number 
being 1842. From the same work, the deaths are given for a 
period of fifty years, from 1725 to 1775, showing the mortality 
among the blacks to have been twice that among the whites. 
Oflate years, Boston, probably, does not differ from itself in 
former times, nor from New York at present. In the com- 
pendium of the United States census for 1850, p. 64, it is said 
that the ' declining ratio of the increase of the free colored 
in every section is notable. In New England the increase is 
now almost nothing;' in the southwest and the southern States 
the increase is much reduced ; it is only in the northwest that 
there is any increase, 'indicating a large emigration to that 
quarter.' What must become of the black population at this 
rate in a few years? What are the causes of this decay? 
They do not disregard the laws of social and physical well- 
being any more than, if they do as much as, the whites. It 
seems to me one of the necessary consequences of attempts 
to mix races ; the hybrids cease to be prolific ; the race must 
die out as mulatto ; it must either keep black unmixed, or 
become extinct. Nobody doubts that a mixed offspring may 
be produced by intermarriage of different races— the Griquas, 
the Papuas, the Cafuses of Brazil, so elaborately numerated 
by Pritchard, sufficiently prove this. The question is, whether 
they would be perpetuated if strictly confined to intermarriage 



236 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

among themselves ? From the facts in the case of mulattoes, 
we say unquestionably not. The same is true, as far as has 
been observed, of the mixture of the white and red races, in 
Mexico, Central and South America. The well-known infre- 
quency of mixed offspring between the European and Austra- 
lian races, led the Colonial government to official inquiries, 
and to the result, that in thirty-one districts, numbering fifteen 
thousand inhabitants, the half-breeds did not exceed two hun- 
dred, though the connection of the two races was very inti- 
mate. 

" If any one wishes to be convinced of the inferiority and 
tendency to disease in the mulatto race, even with the assist- 
ance of the pure blood of the black and white race, he need 
only witness what I did recently, viz. : the disembarkation from 
a steamboat of a colored picnic party, of both sexes, of all ages, 
from the infant in arms to the aged, of all hues, from the darkest 
black to a color approaching white. There was no old mulatto, 
though there were several old negroes; many fine-looking 
mulattoes of both sexes, evidently the first offspring from the 
pure races ; then came the youths and children, and here could 
be read the sad truth at a glance. The little blacks were 
agile looking ; the little mulattoes, youths and young women, 
farther removed from the pure stock, were sickly, feeble, with 
frightful scars and skin diseases, and scrofula stamped on 
every feature and every visible part of the body. Here was 
hybridity of human races, under the most favorable circum- 
stances of worldly condition and social position." 

It seems to me the above would be sufficient to 
satisfy any class of men, even the abolitionists ; but 
the antislavery question being the only question by 
which this Union, the succor and glory of man, 
could possibly be destroyed, therefore this powerful 
testimony is rejected by the hosts of disunionists here 
in the free States. Pardon me for these out of place 
remarks, for they come up so strongly and vividly 
before me, that my pen seems almost involuntarily 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 237 

to write them down. Hybridity in tlie North is 
more fatal than in the Sonth. The half breeds and 
quadroons are not so sickly and puny in the warm 
climates, therefore not so short lived, but yet fatal 
enough to be visible to every observing slaveholder, 
who knows too well the fatal effects to his interest, 
of having the blood of his negroes mixed with white 
blood, to encourage it in any way whatever, even if 
he had no moral objections to such an ungodly busi- 
ness; and yet every slaveholder is accused of en- 
couraging it between his own sons and his negro 
slaves, and of engaging in it himself. Now let us 
ask ourselves the question, How would we like to 
be thus slandered by the Southern people? Just 
suppose the tables were turned, how would we like 
it ? I have shown already that hybridity is fatal 
to the human race in this country, and is prohibited 
by laws altogether out of our control. Then we 
may despair of ever bringing the two races together 
on a social equality on that plan. It is wonderful 
how any white man or woman can sink themselves 
low enough to desire such a ruinous and hell-begotten 
scheme. 

I will give one more very singular and striking 
result in hybridity,. which I hope will be noticed 
with special attention. In the animal, hybridity 
hardeneth, and increaseth longevity. Take the 
horse and the ass, and breed them together, and 
their offspring will be, and is, almost like brass. 
There are no hardships too great for the mule; 
although much less in size than the horse, yet he is 
far more useful for general drudgery, and suited to 



238 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

all climes. "Whether in the torrid or frigid zones, the 
mules are the same long-lived beast of burden, and 
no hardships seem too much for their grizzly nature 
in any climes. Take the wild and tame goose, or 
the wild and tame duck, or the common and Mus- 
cova ducks, and breed them together, their offspring 
(though entirely neutral and unproductive) will be 
strong and long-lived. 

Now, how is it, that hybriclity or mixing of blood 
among the animal creation produces such great 
strength and longevity, while between the Anglo- 
Saxon and African it is so fatal to health and life, 
and almost as unproductive in the propagation of 
their species as the animal ? Is there no Providence 
in this ? Is it all by chance ?. Has it no meaning ? 
And how is it that the negro is so much healthier 
and longer lived in the torrid than in the frigid 
zones ? And yet, like the mule, they will not culti- 
vate the soil without a master. Is this not too sig- 
nificant to be without meaning? Then is it not 
clear that the negroes were originally intended to 
be used by the white man to do the drudgery in the 
hot sun of the tropical regions of the world ? This 
being the case, which all experience and history 
shows the fact, and the demonstrative evidence now 
manifest by the emancipation of all the slaves in 
the British, Spanish, and French Provinces, from 
thirty to forty years ago, without one palliating cir- 
cumstance having even jet grown out of that scheme 
of degradation and ruin to the poor African, and the 
almost incalculable loss to the whole civilized world 
by that scheme, ought to satisfy every good man. 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 239 

How, then, are these two distinct races to meet on 
a social, political, and domestic equality? Would 
you have a people totally incapable of self-govern- 
ment to hold their proportion of the offices ? Would 
you have the sixth part of our police force to be 
African negroes, or the sixth part of our lawyers, 
our legislators, the Congress of the United States, 
and every sixth President and Yice-President to be 
of that race ? How would you like to go into our 
Supreme Court in Bank, and there see a black 
negro the presiding judge ? Would you have the 
sixth part of our courts to be negroes ? Even sup- 
posing this could be done without a social and 
domestic equality, which would be impossible, would 
you be willing to force anything upon us that would 
be so extremely forbidding? You know all our 
senses revolt at the thought. Would you change 
the beauty of the Anglo-American race for the sake 
of one of the most obnoxious and forbidding races 
on earth, to all our senses? Would you sink us 
from the high and noble state God has given us in 
the world, down to heathen and barbarism ? Don't 
you suppose that if God had willed such a mixture, 
he would have thus created us? And if it was 
right for us to be on an equality with African ne- 
groes, would he have placed those laws in human 
nature so disastrous to its perpetuation and domes- 
tic happiness ? I think the party who advocate these 
principles are not only lower than the angels, but a 
little lower than the devil. 

Now the question naturally arises, can the negroes 
all be set free, and allowed to remain with us, with- 



24:0 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

out being placed on a political and social equality, 
at least, or be completely exterminated? Now, if 
you set them all free, one or more of these events will 
come up in our history. Our Heavenly Father has 
made us to rule, and the negroes to serve, and if Ave, 
through a pretended sympathy, or a false philan- 
thropy, right in the face of all common sense and 
reason, set aside his holy arrangements for the good 
of mankind and his own glory, and tamper with his 
laws, we shall be overthrown and eternally degraded, 
and perhaps made subjects of some other civilized 
nation. This will be our doom as sure as God lives. 
Then, will you persevere in such foolery, right in 
the face of truth and righteousness, with your heaven- 
daring schemes of wickedness, that will as assuredly 
overthrow this great and glorious Union as the 
scheme shall be adopted, or -bring about the extermi- 
nation of the whole negro race in this country ? The 
laws of nature and nature's God prohibit the mixing 
of the two colors into one blood, which ends that 
plan. Colonization in their native land of all the 
negroes would be so nearly impracticable, that it 
will never be done, and no other spot on this green 
earth will do for them. It would be the height of 
cruelty and barbarism to send them anywhere else. 
If they could all be colonized on the coast of Africa, 
they would fall back into heathenism and barbarism 
in less than fifty years; for the civilization of Af- 
rica will cease as soon, or very soon after, the influx 
of fresh supplies shall cease to arrive there from a 
iplete civilized nation. That being the 
only way that the civilization of Africa can be sue- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 241 

cessful and perpetual — all other schemes for the 
safety of the negro in this country, and the civiliza- 
tion of Africa being out of the question, except 
through African slavery in the United States. 

These ideas will be denounced by all the aboli- 
tionists in the whole country, whether republicans, 
democrats, or Union men; but denunciations will 
not disprove them. Don't understand me to be 
opposed to colonization, for I am a strong advo- 
cate of that scheme, for great good has been effected 
by it on the coast of Africa. But if all the Africans 
in the United States should be colonized there, it 
would mainly end the deep interest that is felt for 
the success of those colonies, and it is universally 
admitted that the black race is a lower order of the 
human family than any other. It is asserted by 
many of the best and most experienced men on earth 
that they are not now or ever will be capable of self- 
government. But as long as we keep them here, 
and colonize the surplus every year, and those who 
are willing to go, a government will be kept up 
there of some sort, that will be better than no govern- 
ment at all. 

Every circumstance seems to prove that slavery 
in the United States was the work o'f God, for the 
civilization of the African race, that it produces a 
greater wonderment in my mind than any other 
strange thing I have ever seen or heard, that so 
many sensible men can be found who reject the idea 
as a wicked one, and denounce all who embrace it as 
murderers, thieves, and robbers. If all such would 
only divest themselves of all prejudice, and examine 
21 



242 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

the question as Christian men ought, they would 
soon see it in a different light, and change their 
opinion altogether on the question. 
" Prior to 1620, every scheme was adopted to suc- 
cessfully cultivate the soil of the tropics of the 
United States. ^Three-fourths of the whites who 
attempted to work the soil in the hot sun, soon 
sickened and died ; they then enslaved the Indians, 
and they died off faster than the whites. When 
despair had filled every man in the southern colonies, 
and they were fast coming to the conclusion that 
they would be compelled to strike their tents and 
leave those rich and sunny climes to the Indians 
and wild beasts, and retire in hopeless despair, news 
came that a vessel had arrived from the Portugal 
possessions on the coast of Africa, with a small cargo 
of Africans. The colonies concluded to try the new 
experiment. They purchased them and set them to 
work in the fields, looking for the same result as 
they had from the Indians and white men ; but after 
the experiment had been sufficiently tried, to their 
agreeable surprise they found them just exactly 
suited to their wants, and instead of becoming weak, 
sickly, and to a premature death, as the white men 
and Indians did/ they waxed strong under the 
yoke of bondage. The hot sun and hard labor were 
soon found to be more congenial to their health and 
longevity, than to the beasts of burden, or labor, or 
idleness in the shade.\, Another most remarkable 
fact showed itself very soon. They were altogether 
unlike the Indians, who hated their masters, and 
would slay them in secret at every opportunity ; the 



AFEICAN SLAVERY. 243 

negroes loved their masters, and leaned upon them as a 
child leans npon its parents, and do to this day, 
wherever their minds have not been poisoned by 
^designing, wicked white men and women. ^They thus 
continued for two hundred years, contented and happy, 
loving their masters more than any other earthly 
object, and still do wherever they have not been 
deceived by designing disunionists, and haters of a 
republican form of government. 

Now the fact is that negroes are so much happier, 
healthier, and longer lived in slavery than they are 
free, and that free negroes have never been of any 
earthly use to themselves or anybody else, in this 
country, as I have fully shown in former chapters. 
No light never could have been thrown, either 
gospel or any kind of civilization, into that great 
and benighted country (Africa), had negro slavery 
never have been introduced into the United States. 
All the good that has ever come to the African in 
any shape or form, has been through the insti- 
tution of slavery; and every attempt to change 
that relation has proved a great curse to both 
races in our once happy land. 'He who labors to 
break up the relation of master and slave, is a trai- 
tor to heaven's righteous plans of government among 
men, and an enemy to the true happiness of man- 
kind. ^See now what terrible curses have fallen 
upon the whole country by our interfering with 
that institution. Who could have believed two 
years ago that saints could have so soon been turned 
into devils! The best and most tender hearted 
liberal Christian men and women, and the greatest 



244 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

lovers of our national constitution and union of 
States, seem now to be wicked spirits, who glory in 
murder and the destruction of liberty and property. 
Why this sudden change, and who or what has done 
it ? It is because of an attempt to abolish slavery 
in this country. It is because of the determination 
in the North never to cease to interfere with the 
institution in the States, where God has so com- 
pletely provided for its existence, that it should be 
a necessity. But in his goodness and wisdom in 
making this arrangement for the salvation of Africa, 
spiritually and temporally, did not forget that the 
white race would be burdened with an evil, there- 
fore he designed that man should be paid for his 
labor and trouble, and made slavery profitable to all 
good and well-managing men, while he created the 
necessity that would force man into the ownership 
of slaves. ^ 

I will repeat, in conclusion, that the two races 
cannot, for the reasons herein given, ever live to- 
gether on a social or political equality, without the 
destruction of the peace and happiness of both races, 
and a complete overthrow of this great and glorious 
government. The emancipation of all the slaves 
will produce the same ruin, for as soon as so many 
millions of free people (negroes) are thrown upon 
the country and not placed on a social and political 
equality, the Union is at once gone. \To place them 
on an equality, would be a perpetual ruin to the 
whole nation.! To colonize them is impossible. 
Then it is as clear as a sunbeam that the only plan 
is to keep up the relation of master and slave unmo- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 245 

lested, and colonize the surplus in Liberia, but to 
send none over forty years old, and them of the best 
and most intelligent class. All the free negroes 
under forty and over eighteen years old should be 
colonized there, for they are no manner of use here, 
but stand in the way of a free republican govern- 
ment and Union. There should be no negroes in 
this country, but those who are slaves. (/I have tried 
to come to other conclusions, but circumstances 
herein alluded to have forced me into these opinions 
against my desire, knowing such opinions would be 
exceedingly unpopular with nearly all my best 
friends, and would not raise me up any with the few 
who may not denounce me as a cruel man, I desiring 
to have the confidence of all who know' me or may 
hear of me. But I cannot after a complete and 
thorough unbiased investigation of the subject, both 
civil and moral with all its concomitant circumstan- 
ces, take a different course. I felt that I could better 
bear the loss and wrath of my friends and others, 
than I could a conscientious sense of having taken 
a wrong or false ground. Policy suggested a different 
course on this subject, and the temptation was so 
great that in the beginning of this work I wrote 
several pages, in which I aimed to trim between the 
two extremes on the moral question of slavery ; but 
on an examination of the Bible, authorities of the 
question, and reason for the good of mankind, and 
the opinions of the most eminent divines who have 
ever written on the Scriptural laws of slavery, espe- 
cially those who wrote before the strife had risen on 
the subject in this country, and the more modern 
21* 



246 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

writers who were so prejudiced against the traffic in 
human beings that they condemned it in strong terms, 
I became so powerfully convinced that slavery was 
divinely authorized that I stopped short and threw 
away, perhaps, twenty pages of manuscript, in 
which I had attempted to show that slavery in the 
abstract would be a moral evil. Having then fully 
made up my mind that I would rather have a sense 
of being right than to be popular, consequently I 
have written this book conscientiously, believing I 
have taken the only true, safe, and righteous ground 
on all subjects herein noticed. It being my faith, 
allow that I am honest, and aim at right, if you con- 
demn the faith as heterodox ; for I do believe the 
negro race heterogeneous to white people. 



CHAPTEE V. 

Who are Union Men ? 

The larger part of this chapter was written for 
the Press after the war commenced, but was refused 
admission. I have since added four or five pages of 
new matter. 

I, as a Constitutional Union man, who love the 
Constitution and the Union more than anything else 
under heaven, desire to know who are the Union 
men, and who the anti-Union men per se. I under- 
stand that a real Union man must be a real lover of 
the Constitution, or if he professes to be a Union 
man and declares hostility to the Constitution, that 
he is either a gross hypocrite or a fool. If I have 
misunderstood the meaning of a true Union man, I 
should like to be set straight by some "lexicogra- 
pher," for no man hates the wrong and loves the 
right more than I, especially in matters of such vast 
importance as the above. It seems to me that the 
principles of Union and disunion are so plain that 
a child four years old can comprehend them. Then, 
how can a man be a real genuine Union man, and 
hate the Constitution — the only chain of the Union 
that holds it together ? He must either hate both or 
love both, for every man well knows that one cannot 

(247 ) 



24:8 AFRICAN" SLAVERY. 

exist without the other ; therefore, the inferences are, 
that if he hates one he must hate both, or, if he 
loves one he loves both. How is this question to be 
solved ? I will undertake to do it as briefly as pos- 
sible, and, if I mistake, please correct me, for there 
is nothing affecting the hopes and fears of this coun- 
try at present more than this. I look upon a dis- 
unionist per se, as the most abominable monster on 
the face of the earth. I can think of nothing under 
the heavens so hateful in the eyes of the Almighty, 
and in the hearts of all good men. They are the 
very excrescence of the bottomless pit. 

I meet with men every day who cry loudly for 
the Union, and urge the prosecution of the war be- 
yond possibility; and denounce the administration, 
Gen. Scott, and Gen. McClellan, for not having 
pushed the war on before this, to the total destruc- 
tion of the whole South, with their entire interest, 
without the slightest respect to the helpless women 
and children. They seem to be so aggrieved and 
mortified at the Southern people for attempting to 
destroy this great and glorious Union, that many of 
them say that the whole white population of the 
seceding States must be exterminated for the crime 
they have committed in the attempt to withdraw from 
the Union. They most bitterly denounce every man 
as a traitor who speaks of trying to save the Union 
without the destruction of human life. Yet they say 
they never want to see the Union restored with peace and 
harmony, while there is a slave on American soil. No! 
rather than leave one neyro in slavery in the United 
States, they would see the Union split into fragments, 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 249 

and a monarchical government established with the 
most extreme desjjotism ever known. Or rather than 
yield up one single line of the Chicago Platform, or 
to allow one single slave to go into the territories of 
the United States under protection of law. or one 
sent back to his master who had made his escape 
into the free States, " let the Constitution slide," let 
the Union be broken up, let anarchy reign from 
Maine to Florida, and from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific. This class of men, and women too, are very 
large in this city of Brotherly Love, and they allow 
no man to speak of peace through the medium of 
olive-branches. If he dare do it, they denounce him 
as a secessionist, and tell him he ought to be hung 
upon the lamp-post by the neck, or locked up in a 
prison cell and kept there until he rots. One of these 
kind of Union men, a large merchant in this city, 
said he had two sons in the battle field, and if he 
had forty, he would send them all to save this glori- 
ous Union from destruction, and if one refused to go 
he would disown him. Yet this great patriot de- 
nounces the Constitution as a compromise with the 
devil and a league with hell. There are thousands 
upon thousands of these great patriotic Union men, 
who would rather anything should take place, no 
matter how devilish, than there should be one single 
negro slave in the United States. 

Now, I cannot conceive of but one way to solve 
this enigma, and that is as follows : In the first place 
they are " wolves in sheep's clothing," as set forth in 
the Bible. Secondly, they are servants of old Apol- 
lyon, and hate Christianity, and all that is good in 



250 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

this world ; in short, they are an infidel crew, sent 
forth by the father of lies and the hater of God and 
all good government, to destroy this model govern- 
ment, simply because it was marked out by the finger 
of Jehovah, and destined to remodel the whole world, 
and usher in the millenium spoken of in the Scrip- 
tures. It would not be hard to prove that the 'great 
love and sympathy they profess to feel for the poor 
slave is a false pretext, feigned for the purpose of 
breaking up the Union between the North and South, 
and not that they care anything about the poor Afri- 
cans in slavery, or have the slightest conscientious 
scruples on the subject of slavery or slaveholding. 
But they hate pure Christianity more than they love 
the Constitution, therefore their, opposition to South- 
ern slavery. Why ? Because they know there is no 
other sectional question of interest in the United 
States, and they know that to be a vital and exciting 
one to the Southern people. If there were no slaves 
they would seize upon something else the most ex- 
citing in the country. If these people have so much 
sympathy for the poor negro, how is it they have 
none for any other species of mankind? Every 
man or woman who has any knowledge of facts in 
the case, knows the slaves to be well off, and a great 
deal better off than one-half of the white population 
of the free States. They have few or no troubles, 
and are the happiest people on earth ; they have no 
concern beyond the present moment. Then why is 
it there is so much concern felt for the poor slaves, 
while the free people of color are in so much worse 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 251 

• condition in every shape and form, and no sympathy 
felt or expressed for them whatever ? 

Where are the thousands of Indians who occupied 
the very ground on which this great city is built? 
They pre-occupied this soil, and in that way were the 
rightful owners of every foot of earth now occupied 
in the United States by the white man. But where 
are they to-day ? Have they not been driven from 
their rights and rightful homes, to the western wilds 
and Eocky Mountains, and thousands upon thou- 
sands of them murdered and slaughtered in their own 
homes, simply because they contended for their birth- 
right? Millions of them have been compelled to 
perish with cold and hunger, under the snow-flakes of 
the Eocky Mountains, after having been driven from 
their just rights and happy homes. Who will pre- 
tend to say this is not real robbery, theft, and mur- 
der? But who has condemned all this wickedness? 
Where are the long aping and pitiful faces that 
have been forced or feigned, or those that originated 
from pure sympathy, to be found among all the 
sympathizers in this country with the poor slaves, 
who have every right conceded to them they ever 
had or now have? They are well clad and fed, 
cared for and respected, and enjoy all the fruits of 
their labor, even more than Stephen Girard ever 
did. They have good homes, the doctor when sick, 
and are well nursed. There is not one to be found 
in the United States, who owes one cent, and all 
who do right are as happy as men can be in this 
world of sin. Yet this great and glorious Union 
which has produced such happiness and peace to 



.252 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

the Africans, is to be broken up, and the whole 
white population reduced to slavery, under some 
despotic monarch or thrown into a state of anarchy, 
rather than one negro should be left in slavery in 
the United States, the only condition of peace and 
safety they ever will find in this world. 

Now tell me how is this, that we must give up all 
that is dear to us in this world, and not do the slaves 
any good, but reduce them to a far worse condition 
than their present one, and not even a complaint 
made against the treatment to the poor Indians, who 
have been robbed of all their rights, and slain like 
blackbirds, and driven back to the very ends of the 
earth, and there left to perish ! For all this, hot one 
association formed, or a meeting called, or a tear 
dropped, nor no long sympathetic aping faces made 
by those who would give up all that is good, rather 
than there should be one negro left in slavery in 
this great country. I will tell yon how it is. 
The Indian question cannot be made a sectional 
one. The whole country is of the same opinion, 
and it would produce no opposition between the 
North and South, nor the East and West. It would 
rather tend to strengthen the Union, therefore it 
would not answer the purpose. But the slave ques- 
tion is a sectional one, it strikes at the very vitals of 
the benefits of one-half of the soil of this country, 
the dearest rights of the people thereof, and the 
Constitution of the United States. It aims a death 
blow at all the civil, social, and domestic institutions 
of all the States. And all this is aimed at the very 
vitals of this great Union. It is done because the 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 253 

Union encourages Christianity through the Gospel 
of Christ. If I am wrong I hope some one will set 
me right. Ask those men what they propose to do 
with five millions of free negroes suddenly turned 
loose on the country! Some answer that they will 
leave that for an after consideration ; others say that 
they have nothing to do with it, that their business 
is to free them ; and some say they may go to the 
devil for all they care about them ; but others say 
they must be placed on an equality, that our Creator 
had made us all equal, therefore we are compelled 
to take them into a political, social, and domestic 
equality. Mr. G\, who is rather a fine-looking man, 
said to me the other day, in the presence of a num- 
ber of witnesses, that he was no respecter of persons 
on account of their color, that he would just as soon 
take the arm of a black person, or have them take 
his {male or female of course) and walk through the 
city, or promenade the -social circle, as he would a 
white person. Mr. G. is well-known in this city. 
A large majority of the above named Union men 
are of this class, according to their declarations. 

Now, I don't believe one word of such asseverations, 
nor do I believe any man of common sense or good 
judgment does ; for such a thing is contrary to 
human nature and common sense. All such asseve- 
rations are for effect, and all such persons would be 
the first to rebel against any government that would 
attempt to enforce it, even if it was the government , 
of Jehovah himself, if it was made morally and civilly 
right to do so. All such declarations are without 
• 22 



254: AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

the slightest foundation in honest truth, and have 
an ulterior object in view, and that is the total de- 
struction of this great and glorious Union. They 
are the very men who have brought us to this awful 
crisis, and now denounce every man as a secessionist 
who dares to speak of saving the Union, and restor- 
ing peace, tranquillity, and harmony, in any other 
way than the one that will eternally destroy it, just 
as sure as we have had peace and prosperity through 
and by the Constitution and the Union. Yea! as 
sure as there is a heaven above and an earth beneath, 
our peace and harmony is gone, eternally gone, if 
the above class of Union men are allowed to lead or 
are listened to. They know well that a free republi- 
can Union cannot exist with five millions of inhabi- 
tants interspersed among them totally incapable of 
self-government or of being made so. And even if 
they were, human nature is such that they could 
not be admitted on an equality, for which they would 
sue in less than five years. Then a scene would 
transpire such as the sun has never shone upon. Our 
soil would be drenched with human gore from one 
end to the other ; and our Union that has been the 
harbinger of peace, love, tranquillity, and har- 
mony would suddenly be converted into a reign of 
anarchy, which would exist as long as there was a 
colored person on American soil, or a terrible des- 
potism established by some tyrant of a Nero, who 
would seize the reins of government, mount the 
throne, and reduce us all to slavery, or to an equality 
without the slightest respect to color, and that would 
be the end of civil and religious liberty. I look 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 255 

upon this class of fanatics as being just such as the 
devil would have them to be. 

I will say, in conclusion, that, as long as the slaves 
are ]^t alone, in the possession of their masters, the 
free people of color will be safe in this country, and 
their rights cared for, but no longer. The four and 
a half millions of slaves in the United States are the 
only safeguards the free black man has, and none 
would suffer a greater overthrow by the emancipa- 
tion of all the slaves, or destruction of the Union, 
.than they. In either case, they will be the greater 
losers, unless a Nero should seize the reins of govern- 
ment at the same time, with five hundred thousand 
troops under his control. This would end all con- 
troversy, and forever solve the question of the 
capability of man for self-government. 

The course those Union men are pursuing, is the 
most cruel to the colored race in this country that 
could be devised. How men can be so cruel and 
hard-hearted towards so large a class of innocent, 
unprotected, and, to this clay, a useful people, I am 
unable to decipher, for I tell you now, that whenever 
they are all emancipated, you will see cruelties here- 
tofore unknown (even under Nero). Human nature 
is such, that this trouble will come very soon after 
the emancipation of all the slaves, unless a military 
despotism be established on the heels of universal 
emancipation. For a free republican union, where 
every subject is a king, cannot stand where one 
sixth of the subjects are marked with such obnoxious 
distinctness ; so much so, that every colored man 
would almost give his life to be made a pure white 



256 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

man for one month. I am not willing to give up 
the Union for any cause. Union means love, har- 
mony, tranquillity, and peace. Love is the only bond 
that will ever restore the Union. We must love the 
southern people, and they must love us, or there never 
can be a union between the two extremes. I am 
ready for any plan that is the most direct to such a 
glorious result. To get at the best plan, every bitter 
feeling, with alb hard sayings, all prejudice, and sec- 
tionalism must be suspended, let us get together 
and discuss the best plan to save the Union of the 
thirty-four States, for I tell you, a great many people 
have got to believe that this war is not to save the 
Union, but to emancipate all the slaves, and break 
it up forever. This feeling has been engendered 
altogether by the class of Union men above alluded 
to. These men are traitors, and they tremble with 
fear that peace will be made with slavery in the 
country. They know the emancipation of all the 
slaves would make it necessary to change the govern- 
ment from a free republican Union to a military 
despotism ; for five millions of people set free among 
us, totally incapable of self-government, could not be 
ruled without it, for as soon as they are all freed, 
the prejudice of color will rise to its highest pitch, 
and could be restrained only by military power. 
These people are the worst enemies of the colored 
race, and the union of the States on the face of .the 
earth. They have been seeking the destruction of 
this glorious Union for more than fifty years 1 , and 
now exult over their prospects. 0! "Ye serpents, 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 257 

ye generation of vipers! how can ye escape the 
damnation of hell ?" 

I will give another sample or two of these pre- 
tended Unionists. I stepped into one of our largest 
newspaper offices the other day, where there were 
three or four gentlemen, some of whom were re- 
porters, and an assistant editor. I was asked by one 
of them what my ideas were about the close of the 
war. I began to tell them how I believed it could 
now be settled without any further destruction of 
hunian life. This was a few days after the Fort 
Donaldson victory was reported. I had not pro- 
ceeded far, before I was asked if I supposed peace 
could be restored with slavery in the country. I 
answered in the affirmative. 1 was laughed at as a 
strange man. They then denounced slavery as the 
greatest crime known to God or man. I told them I 
could not see how they could make out such a case, 
where neither the moral nor civil law forbids its ex- 
istence — that it was constitutional according to the 
declarations of both, and the moral constitution and 
law sustained it in stronger terms than did the civil. 
Two of those gentlemen simultaneously denounced 
the Old and New Testaments as books of falsehoods 
and lies, and were only calculated to ruin men and 
women by debauchery and degradation. I saw 
there was no use to quote Scripture, for it was like 
casting pearl before swine. I then referred them to 
the fact that the colored races could not be so civil- 
ized as to be capable of self-government — that there 
was not the slightest appearance of any improvement 
on the globe made by them, except as slaves under 



258 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

the direction of white men. They referred me to 
the Liberian colony on the coast of Africa. I told 
them that that was yet an experiment, which I hoped 
would succeed, that I was a strong and unyielding 
friend of the enterprise, but there are circumstances 
already apparent that have produced doubts in the 
minds of many friends of the experiment. It is cer- 
tain there is room to fear that idleness will sooner or 
later prevail, and, if it should, it was^o be feared 
that barbarism would follow, which can be prevented 
only by a monarchical form of government. They 
remarked that that was not so ; that the aiegroes 
were just as capable of self-government as_white 
men, and had just as good a right to govern in this 
country. I asked them how it was that the Indians 
of the United States had not been civilized — that 
they were here when we came, but removed from 
civilization as chaff before the wind. They remarked 
that it was because the Indians had too much good 
sense even to yield to such a humbug as civilization 
— that it was opposed to life and liberty, and was 
only calculated to make men work twelve hours in 
the day, and consequently made slaves of us all. I 
told them I could not talk with them any longer on 
that subject, as they had rejected the foundations of 
all my arguments for the Union, and my hopes for 
this life and that which is to come. They said they 
hoped the war would not cease as long as there was 
a slave in the United States, and, if nothing else 
would free them, let the entire white population of 
the slave States be exterminated, and the soil given 
up to the slaves, to whom it righteously belongs.^ 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 259 

These men are in very responsible situations, 
where they can wield a powerful influence over the 
minds of both young and old. I meet with so many 
such men, that my hopes for the restoration of the 
Union with tranquillity and harmony, are sometimes 
very faint ; and when I am denounced as a traitor 
by such men, I wonder what kind of government 
we should have if such as .they had the entire con- 
trol ! They seem to think there would be no harm 
in making white men slaves, provided they were 
made slaves to negroes. One of their sweeping 
arguments which they almost invariably use, is, 
how would you like to be a slave ? I know I. would 
not like to be a slave, because it would be degrad- 
ing to me. I am one of the individual rulers or 
governers of this country, and was intended by the 
Supreme Ruler of the world to be a free man. 
IS either I nor my ancestors were ever heathens or 
slaves; neither were they black, nor could not be 
made so, because it was not the will of God. The 
negroes are greatly elevated by slavery. They are 
black, and wholly inferior. Their ancestors were 
black heathens and barbarians. They kill and eat 
each other with as much relish, as we kill and eat 
turkeys. Some of the Fejee Islanders never have a 
feast without a roasted negro, and he an acquaint- 
ance or subject. Therefore they are greatly blessed 
and elevated by being brought here and made slaves. 
The slaves of the United States are, on the general, 
so much better off and happier than the so-called 
free people of color, and are not degraded but ele- 
vated by slavery. The morals of the slaves are 



260 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

so incalculably better than that of the free colored 
people, that it is surprising to any man who has not 
been ruled by party cliques, or run wild by an ex- 
citing hobby, to meet such men. But how would 
you like to be a slave ? say they. I say I would not 
like to be a slave, especially to my colored brethren. 

I will ask those very refined soft fingered ladies 
and gentlemen how they would like to be cesspool 
cleaners ? Those of the large cities know what and 
who I mean. How would you like to start with your 
horses and carts, buckets and hoes, at 10 o'clock at 
night (instead of retiring to your beautiful downy 
couch, surrounded with the finest drapery, with a 
sweet wife and child), and drudge through the streets, 
and enter some gentleman's back yard, and descend 
the cesspool to clean it out, and after toiling nearly 
all night in that filth, return to } r our mansion and to 
your bed ? Now I ask again, how would you like 
to be a cesspool cleaner ? I know you will answer 
in the negative, and so will your wife and family. 
Is that any proof that that business is morally 
wrong, and should not be followed by any one else, 
simply because you would not like to do it? Accord- 
ing to your own arguments, all such callings should 
be abolished at once, it being morally wrong and 
cruel, simply because you would not like the occu- 
pation yourself, v 

Again : LTow would you like to turn out daily 
with a gang of hardy, sun-burned, German laborers, 
with your paving pick and pounder, and pave streets, 
lay water pipes for your living, and your wife to go 
out daily and wash, with her tender hands ? I know 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 261 

you would not like it any more than I would like 
to be a slave. Now is it morally wrong and bar- 
barous to employ those German laborers to do that 
kind of work, simply because you would not like to 
do it yourself? Must that kind of work be abol- 
ished, and our streets left knee-deep in mud ? Is it 
morally wrong to wash clothes, because your wife 
would not like to retire to the back yard of some 
lady's house to wash ? Must washing be abolished 
because she would not like the business, and you 
yourself deeply humiliated by the operation ? These 
arguments can be used against any of the above 
occupations with just as much force and good sense, 
as yours can be against slavery. 

I will say again that the only temporal salvation 
on any spot of this verdant earth for the African 
race, is in being slaves to white men, unless it should 
turn out to be otherwise on the coast of Africa, 
which I hope and pray may prove successful. The 
Supreme Being has so ordained it, and every attempt 
by us to make it otherwise, will prove a terrible 
curse to both races. Every national affliction we 
have had, since the adoption of the Constitution, 
with one exception, has been produced either direct- 
ly or indirectly by an inconsiderate opposition to 
negro slavery. The war with Mexico was the con- 
sequence of a constant interference with Southern 
State rights because of slavery, by the people and 
legislators of the free States. ^1 believe just as much 
as I believe I am now writing, that God so directed 
the convention of 1787 in its deliberations in framing 
our national Constitution, to grant the independent 



2C)2 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

state rights, that slavery might not be disturbed or 
interfered with by the abolitionists of the free States. 
If slavery was a cruel barbarism, and a sin against 
God, it would have but few opponents among such 
as are now abolitionists. I will ask those who deny 
the truth of this assertion how it is that no sym- 
pathy has been expressed for the poor Indians, who 
were the aborigines in all these States ? who have 
been murdered and slaughtered by thousands and 
driven to the ends of the earth by us, and there 
left to starve under the snow-flakes of the Eocky 
Mountains. We have robbed them of their moral 
and just rights, and driven them from their homes. 
As inhuman as this seems to be, no abolitionist has 
ever mourned over the cruelties to this most inter- 
esting race. Why is it so ? Because the movement 
would be right in the sight of God, and could not 
be made a sectional issue, therefore would produce 
no quarrel between the two extremes of our com- 
mon country ; and our national glory and God-like 
Union would be in no danger of an eternal over- 
throw by such a righteous movement and sympathy. 
This war with all its horrors and concomitant cir- 
cumstances, is the direct product of the anti-slavery 
party. I mean that portion of them who have been 
unceasingly interfering with Southern rights, and 
denouncing the slaveholders as devils incarnate, and 
charging them with the most hideous crimes known 
to criminal law. Those charges were not against a 
slave owner who might chance to be a bad man, but 
they Were and are made against all slaveholders indis- 
criminately, and every one of them charged with the 



AFBICAN SLAVEKY. 263 

highest crimes known in the whole world, such as 
murder and robbery, and all their sons with constant 
cohabitation with their negro female slaves to produce 
children for the market. I say it is more wonderful to 
me that this most ungodly and wicked rebellion did 
not break out many years sooner than it is it has now 
broken out. When we think of all these things, in 
connection with the many schemes of interference with 
Southern rights to this species of property by the free 
States, and the constant denunciations of Southern 
slaveholders from a thousand pulpits on each succes- 
sive Sabbath day, is it not wonderful to all who 
have given human nature and the jealousy of our 
lawful rights a proper thought ? I will appeal to 
every honest, thoughtful, unprejudiced man for an 
answer to this question. Is it not wonderful that 
this rebellion, as wicked and ungodly as it is, did 
not come sooner ? Remember that this was a free- 
will, volunteer Constitutional Union, made up by 
free-will concessions, " for a more perfect Union," 
and not for one section of the country to hold the 
other as with a halter ; to slander, insult, and perse- 
cute them with the foulest defamations known to 
the vicious. 

If it is true that the constant cohabitations take 
place in the South as alluded to above, how is it 
that there are any real negroes to be found in the 
slave States by this time, for they have been thus 
charged for more than two hundred years ; and if 
the white men of the free States are so much purer 
in that way than those of the slave States, how is it 
that the proportion of mulattoes in the free States 



264 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

are so much larger than in the slave States ? Now, 
don't lay this to the white females of the North, for 
that would be a still greater slander, and would not 
abate the disgrace, but rather increase ^it. These 
things have been stated by designing men and wo- 
men, with such bolduess and assurance, that many 
of our very best people in the free States have been 
overcome and made to believe it, and some of them 
will flare up if jou tell them it is false. I want all 
such to read over what I have written on this point 
of the subject, with particular care, and examine the 
statistics of each ten years, and see for yourselves 
whether the slave States are any worse than the free, 
ou the mulatto question. 

I will again say, if the Southern people are as bad 
as the abolitionists would have them, I don't want to 
be in the Union with them. I am no little surprised 
to find so many of those who believe all such foul 
slanders, so anxious to save and prolong a Union 
with them. ■ I think, to say the least of it, that it 
shows a degraded and demoralized taste, just as foul 
as that with which they charge the slaveholders. 
The very fact of our sympathies being so often 
appealed to by abolitionists, in asking how we 
would like to be slaves, is a proof jiositive that they 
are governed entirely by their sympathies and feel- 
ings, if anything but wiekedncss, and not by convic- 
tion or judgment. What sort of a country should 
we have had by this time, if every person was to 
and rule according to their sympathies. Sup- 
: ren. Washington had yielded to his sympathies 
in the p]>;seeution of the Revolutionary war, should 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 265 

we ever have been an independent nation ? Suppose 
all men and women should govern their children by 
their sympathies ; what sort of children would they 
have ? Suppose a surgeon should act upon the dic- 
tation of his sympathies, would he ever do any good 
to himself, or any unfortunate afflicted person ? Feel- 
ings or sympathies are the most dangerous guides 
for church or state to follow, and if followed without 
the guide of good judgment, they will break up 
every church and government in the civilized world. 
I know all such charges to be mainly false, there- 
fore I am willing to be in the Union with the South- 
ern States. But can this Union be restored by con- 
stantly proclaiming such foul slanders against those 
we have got to -reconcile before any Union can be 
formed with them ? Would it not be better to look 
upon and speak of them as our unfortunate misguided 
brethren, who have misunderstood the majority of 
the North, in the late Presidential election ? Whose 
misunderstanding was produced by the wholesale 
slanders herein alluded to, and by their Constitutional 
and lawful rights having been constantly interfered 
with almost from the adoption of the Constitution to 
the present day, by individuals, associations, and 
statute laws of the free States. Under these circum- 
stances, have they not ground for great complaint? 
And if they have such ground, is it not our duty, 
as a liberal, benevolent, Christian people, to remove 
every such ground from our escutcheon ? Is it not 
right for him who gives the first insult, to make the 
first concession ? 
23 



266 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

You say the general government of the United 
States has always allowed and protected them in 
their Constitutional rights. I say they have not. 
[For Congress has ever refused to protect their rights 
to all property in all the territories of the United 
States. The Eepublican party adopted a platform 
in 1856, repudiating protection to their property in 
the territories of the United States, and renewed it 
again at Chicago in 1860, (and in both instances 
chose both of their candidates for the Presidency 
from the free States,) and this directly in the teeth of 
the Constitution and the decision of the Supreme 
Court of the United States in 1854. Now, I ask 
every candid man, if this was not sufficient to im- 
press the mind of the whole South that we intended 
to crush them with all their peculiar institutions. 

I cannot say that I have ever heard the slightest 
sympathy expressed by any leading republican for 
the sufferings of our unfortunate southern brethren. 
I hear them bitterly cursed almost daily ; by some, for 
fleeing from their homes with their wives and children 
on the approach of our troops, while others seem to ex- 
ult at every such report, and laugh over it as though 
"nobody was hurt, and no harm had been done." 
Among these are some professing Christian ministers 
and their disciples, whose profession binds them to 
mercy's side of every question. The examples set 
in the Scriptures, from Genesis to Eevelations, are 
altogether on the side of mercy, especially those of 
our Saviour. We are there informed that we must 
not only forgive seven times, but seventy times 
seven. The South had borne with our encroaching 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 267 

upon their rights for many years, which caused the 
rebelliou. 

If human nature had ever been forced to love, or 
an example could be found on the pages of Holy 
Writ for forcing people to love each other, I should 
have some hope that this war would ultimately re- 
store the Union. But as there has been no success- 
ful precedent recorded on the pages of sacred or 
profane history, I am left without the slightest hope 
of any forced restoration of harmony and peace 
between the two extremes of our beloved country. 
This being the case, would it not be better to propose 
an amnesty with our southern brethren ? I would 
pardon the whole South, if that would restore peace, 
harmony, and obedience to the laws throughout the 
whole country. I believe Grod would bless the effort, 
and make it successful. "We may conquer the South, 
but that will not restore the Union, without which 
there never can be peace and harmony in this great 
nation. There is only one way to restore the Union, 
and that must be through love as proposed by our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who said, "Bless 
them that curse you." The only bond of this Union 
was love for each other ; therefore sectionalism was 
started to destroy it, that being the only means by 
which it could be effectually done. The war will 
produce horror upon horror, and hatred upon hatred, 
and the longer it is prosecuted, the further we shall 
be from harmony and peace. I would submit to any 
depth of humiliation for the sake of handing a per- 
fect Union down to future generations. I know that 
if it is not soon settled, it never can be, and we shall 



268 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

go down to our graves, leaving it a terrible despotism 
or in a state of universal anarchy. May God in his 
mercy save us from the interminable ruin that seems 
to be before us, all of which is the legitimate result 
of opposition to slavery, which was only a pretext 
of the leaders to destroy the Union. When the 
taxes come, we shall be made to sweat and atone for 
our hypocrisy. 

The worst troubles are yet to be realized. If the 
slaves should all be freed, they will become a mass of 
ruined humanity, that will be an intolerable weight 
around the neck of society, which will chafe our fu- 
ture hopes, our national pride, and clog the wheels 
of the onward course of the prosperity of the whole 
country. God has given them to its for the mutual 
benefit of both races, but the relation to be master 
and slave, as decreed about four thousand two hun- 
dred and forty-eight years ago. Our only moral 
right in the matter, as a people and nation, is to see 
that they are humanely treated. I know my best 
and most influential business and social friends are 
bitterly opposed to me in these views, and some of 
my religious friends say they would be pleased to 
see me hung up by the neck. They may crucify 
me, but while I can speak and write, I will state my 
clearest convictions, and nothing else. In facts I 
have told the truth ; I may have erred a little in 
some of my inferences, and some of my quotations 
from history may be a little misplaced, as I have 
written mostly from memory. 

"Wherever professing Christians take up the sword 



AFRICAN SLAVERY, 26£ 

to avenge their enemies, they sin against the holy 
precepts of the Son of God and his holy apostles. 

" Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, 
give him drink ; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on 
his head."- — Rom. xii. 20. 

" Then said Jesus unto him, put up again thy sword into his 
place ; for all they that take the sword, shall perish with the 
sword." — Matt. xxvi. 52. 

The very essence of the principles on which this 
war is waged by professing Christians, fully and com- 
pletely repudiates Christianity, and all free repub- 
lican governments and unions. Our general govern- 
ment was wholly begotten and truly Christian in all 
its articles and clauses, made up by mutual conces- 
sions and compromises, without the temporal sword. 
I know they came to a dead halt while forming it, but 
was the sword drawn from its scabbard? No, 
brethren ! Did they quarrel and call each other 
hard names, such as thieves, murderers, and robbers ? 
No ; they did no such thing. How, then, did they 
get unlocked? They unanimously agreed to send 
for a celebrated clergyman to come into their midst 
with his Bible, read a chapter, and pray for the 
Holy Ghost to rest down upon them. The result 
was, the dam gave way, union of sentiment was at 
once restored, and the Constitution speedily agreed 
upon. 

This war, and every particle of the malice and 
hatred between the North and South, has grown out 
of resisting the constitutional and lawful rights of the 
slave States of the Union. All those who instituted 
the sectional antipathies by resisting those rights, and 
23* 



270 AFRICAN" SLAVERY. 

those who have carried it on to present results, are 
guilty of murder in every life that has been lost ; and 
all those who persist in urging the war against our 
southern brethren, without first restoring their fullest 
Constitutional rights, as agreed upon after the Eev. 
Mr. White read the chapter, and prayed for the bless- 
ing of Jehovah to descend into all the hearts of those 
constituting the Convention, are sinning against God 
and their own civil and religious liberties. I do not 
include the soldiers who have obej^ed the call of the 
Chief Magistrate of this nation. The war cannot be 
justified until every right belonging to the slave 
States, under the Constitution of the United States, 
shall be restored to them ; then, if they still rebel, I 
shall have nothing to say. But I am well satisfied 
that there would not be the slightest necessity of 
firing another gun or unsheathing another sword, 
providing the offer should be made in the same spirit 
that the Rev. gentleman was invited into the National 
Convention that adopted the Constitution. That is, if 
the offer should be fully clothed in the spirit of love, 
the only power that has ever yet conquered the 
wickedness of the human heart, so that enemies would 
love each other, without which we never can again 
have any Union of these United States. The extremes 
must love each other, or union is impossible. Con- 
vince me that war will produce love to each other ; 
then I will be for war, or anything that will restore 
the Union; for union means love, harmony, and 
tranquillity. 

I don't want to be understood to justify this wicked 
rebellion, for I abhor it more than any event that has 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 271 

taken place since the fall from Eden. I abhor it, not 
only because it is destructive to human life and 
morals, and to the happiness and prosperity of the 
free States, but because it is destructive to our 
Southern brethren themselves, and still more so to 
the poor negro race in this whole country. The 
rebellion is far more than equal to the provocation 
given by the abolitionists of the free States, and 
complete extermination would not be more than 
equal to the crime of such wicked rebellion. But 
when we think of the cause of their crime, it is 
enough to cause our hearts to sink with sadness; 
and when we remember how small a matter would 
have prevented it, and placed us on terms of harmony 
and love, it is enough to make the very stones cry 
out and say, destroy us that we may not see the ex- 
tent of the wrong we have done ourselves. 

But this great and glorious Union cannot be re- 
stored by war, for it is its opposite, and the more we 
fight the further we shall be from a Union. Every 
step taken by the Son of God and his holy Apostles, 
so clearly sets forth that he came into the world to 
do away with all cruelties, and carnal weapons of 
warfare, and to bring about a new state of things. 
A state in which Christians should ever stand ready 
to concede to each other enough of their political 
opinions to enable them to acquiesce in civil and re- 
ligious government, that it is so astonishing to me 
to find so many Christians and Christian ministers, 
recommending war to the hilt, even to the extermi- 
nation of the white population of one-half of the 
territory of the United States, because they will not 



272 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

submit to have their Constitutional rights and liber- 
ties trampled upon, instead of offering them a com- 
promise or the least concessions which the slave 
States have never asked for or desired. They have 
always been ready, and offered to concede a large 
portion of their Constitutional rights for the sake of 
peace and union, until after a number of the cotton 
States had prepared to secede. Then they offered 
to stop, and remain contented in the Union with us 
forever, if we would allow them their full Constitu- 
tional rights in said Union ; which offer was unani- 
mously and indignantly refused by the anti-slavery 
party. They were offered by those gentlemen in 
the latter part of December, 1860, in the Senate 
Committee of thirteen appointed to compromise the 
dispute between the extremes. In those offers they 
asked for nothing but their own, under the Constitu- 
tion and laws of the United States. If their offer 
had been accepted by the free States we should have 
had no war, and our civil peace and Union would 
now be like a paradise, and the only unpleasant 
sound that would grate upon our ears, would be the 
howling of infidelity, caused by the great disappoint- 
ment in not being able to break up this heaven-born 
Union that was even a happy home for African 
negro slaves. 

I repeat that I am greatly discouraged and have 
fears that I have lived to see the end of a free Ee- 
publican Constitutional Union, and the only hope of 
free institutions, and the rights of conscience in this 
world, and the end of peace. I am asked why I am 
almost hopeless? I answer, because I find the 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 273 

Christian church, the anchor and safeguard to all 
free institutions, advocating the war on our Christian 
brethren. Yea, they seem to glory and exult in 
the devastation and consternation of the slave States, 
produced by the advance of the superior powers of 
the free States. All this without first conceding to 
them their just rights in the Union ; and when we 
know we have the superior numerical strength and 
power, and could afford to do right and be liberal 
without the slightest humiliation, and still more 
when we have men of great Christian power and 
influence, attributing this war to the Supreme Being, 
and this directly in the teeth of every precept of the 
New Testament and every principle of a free repub- 
lican government. I believe the great God of the 
universe has suffered this outbreak, to teach us that 
we cannot trample upon the rights of our Christian 
brethren with impunity. 

That we can conquer the slave States, I have not 
the shadow of a doubt. But will it be any honor to 
us ? Will it give us a glow of pleasure when we 
look" upon the ruin that has followed our superior 
powers to crush them? When we find all this 
has not restored peace and union, and we shall be 
compelled to give them all they asked for previous 
to the outbreak, and knowing that if we had ac- 
cepted their offer, this terrible calamity would all 
have been avoided. When we see that after all this, 
the great blessings of a perfect Union are gone, 
perhaps, never to return. 

If Christian men still teach that the Holy God in- 
stituted this war, just at the right time and in the 



274 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

right place, what will the world think of the Chris- 
tians' faith or their God ? Will it not lead them to 
believe that the Supreme Being is opposed to repub- 
lican governments, and enter into extreme infidelity ? 
I fear this will be the result, because I believe God 
to be a jealous God, and that he has chosen us to 
take charge of this republican government, to be as 
a, city set upon a hill, that its great brilliancy might 
dazzle the eyes of the whole world, and teach them 
that the white man was made for self-government, 
and competent for it, and to show us that the only 
plan under existing fallen human nature, was to 
concede to every man his lawful rights. Therefore, 
under His blessings of love we were divided into 
independent State governments, in all the municipal 
enactments ; and each left without the shadow of a 
right, by the great adopted mother of them all (the 
Constitution of the United States), to interfere in 
any manner whatever with the rights of each other. 
But in spite of the precept to do unto others as we 
would they should do unto us, we have interfered 
with the lawful rights of other States ; therefore we 
may look for universal anarchy and confusion, or a 
perpetual iron-hearted despotism, which will place 
Anglo-Americans and Africans on a social and po- 
litical equality, unless we make up our minds (and 
act it out through all the ramifications of this life) 
to concede to all others, white or black, all their 
lawful rights under the Constitution of the United 
States. 

If the Christian church had stuck to her integrity, 
with a single eye to the glory of Gocl, there would 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 275 

never have been any separation nor civil war in this 
country. When I read such speeches as were made 
by the Hon. T. K Arnold of 111. in the House of 
Kepresentatives, on the 17th of February, 1862, my 
hopes for the Union go down to a low ebb. 

We have had no calamity yet, to be compared to 
the one that universal emancipation of the slaves in 
this country will entail upon us. Think of 5,000 r - 
000 set at liberty among us, who will by such a 
national act be placed on a political and social 
equality with the white man, and in a very short 
space of time demand it. Then think of the preju- 
dice of color, manners, and style, and of the pride of 
the human heart. I will leave Mr. Arnold to judge 
of the consequences ; for every sensible unprejudiced 
man will see the end from the beginning. May the 
Lord God of Israel have mercy upon all such men, 
and avert such a direful calamity ! For if he does 
not, and the slaves are all freed, we shall be reduced 
from the highest and most powerful nation on earth 
to the most degraded. 

In conclusion, I will say again that the seceding 
slave States committed as great a crime as ever was 
committed against any nation or people since the 
foundation of the world, except that of Adam ; and 
according to human government and precedents, 
there is no punishment adequate to their crime 
short of complete extermination of all the leaders, 
and banishment of the aiders and abettors. But 
those who drove them to such desperation are still 
worse, and deserve double punishment. They did 
it with their eyes wide open, and knew well what 



276 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

they were at. They did it without the slightest pro- 
vocation. They resolved, many years ago, to agitate, 
slander, and persecute the slave States, until they 
would drive them to commit this desperate act. 
Now the very leaders of those men cry rebellion against 
the South louder than all the world besides. They do 
all this to turn attention away from their own treason, 
to make the world believe that they are great patriots, 
and lovers of the Union of States ; but they never say 
a word in favor of the constitution, the only safeguard 
of the Union. It is so strange to me that so many 
people of the free States, are so completely blind- 
folded by these northern disunionists and rebels 
against the best government ever known in this earth, 
since that'in Eden, nearly 6000 years ago. And this 
great and glorious boon is to be destroyed to place 
the African negro on a social and political equality 
with the white man. Yet hundreds and thousands 
of our best citizens follow in their lead, and they 
cannot be made to see the diabolical treason of these 
leaders ; and they seem to look upon all who en- 
deavor to point out to them the deception of these 
devils incarnate as the friends of the southern rebel- 
lion. Consequently the mouths of the true friends 
of the Constitution and Union are locked up, and 
they are not allowed to speak out their true con- 
victions, to expose the immense treason in the free 
States, and it is feared they will not see until it is 
too late ; for union is love and war its opposite. 

Tell me how it was that Wendell Phillips, Esq., 
after having delivered his soul of a great load of its 
anathemas against the Constitution and Union in the 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 277 

Smithsonian Institute at "Washington, D. C, the other 
day, and told thsm how long he had been laboring 
to destroy this, the greatest boon ever given to man, 
and then was invited to visit the Senate Chamber 
of the United States, and there received the most 
cordial congratulations by the majority of that au- 
gust assembly. If this is not a war on the institu- 
tions of the South, and for the destruction of the 
Constitution, why was this not only suffered, but 
the fell traitor and rebel invited to sow a fresh batch 
of treason and sedition at the capital of the nation ? 
Now if these leaders are fighting to save the Con- 
stitution, how came this circumstance to take place ? 
I would like Mr. Sumner, or some such talented 
member of that majestic body, to explain this enig- 
ma, for I confess that I am too shallow to compre- 
hend it (if they are all Constitutional Union men). 
And again, after he (Mr. Phillips) had let loose his 
embittered treason and sedition against the Consti- 
tution of the United States in the very citadel there- 
of, how came he to be invited by the State Senate 
of Pennsylvania to go to the capital of that State to 
repeat the same treasonable and seditious doctrines ? 
The majority of the party in power must be in favor 
of those treasonable doctrines, or this could never 
have been so. How is it that I and others have 
been threatened to be hanged to lamp-posts by the 
neck or locked up in some fort for even desiring 
peace and union without the shedding of blood? 
Yet this arch traitor was not only allowed but in- 
vited to visit the United States Senate and the Sen- 
ate of Pennsylvania to convert the few remaining 
24 



278 AFEICAN SLAVERY. 

loyal men, in those important bodies, for the safety 
of this great Union, to treason and sedition. If 
those Senators are Constitutional Union loving men, 
how is this ? Tell me, for God's sake, for I am in 
great trouble on this subject. 

A celebrated Garrisonian abolitionist told me this 
morning that he had been called upon three times by 
an authorized committee, to inquire of him if I was 
not a fit subject for incarceration in Fort Lafayette. 
I know I have often been threatened not only with 
a home in some fort, but to be hanged by the neck. 
Now tell me how is this ? "Why were such threats 
made against me? Why did those Kepublicans 
denounce me as a secessionist, traitor, and rebel, 
when I hacl been opposing abolition movements 
asrainst the Constitution and the Union for the last 
twenty-five years ? They then denounced me as a 
negro hunter, thief, murderer, and robber, and why ? 
Because I stood up for the Constitution and Union, 
and declared them to be the greatest blessings that 
heaven had ever bestowed upon any nation of this sin- 
stricken earth. They have reason to believe and 
know that I have never uttered one word on the 
subject, that was not in defence of the Constitution 
and the Union. They also know that I hate a trai- 
tor or a rebel against this great heaven-like govern- 
ment, more than anything outside of the kingdom of 
darkness. There is no class of human beings so sunken 
in crime, that I hate as I hate the man or woman 
that would even express a dislike to the great safe- 
guards of this great and glorious government. It 
has been the object of my earthly admiration from 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 279 

my first understandings of the great and glorious 
national scheme. No abolitionist or secessionist, no 
Constitutional Union man or woman, has ever heard 
me utter a single word against these the greatest 
earthly blessings ever bestowed upon any people. 
No man nor any set of men can come forward and 
say with the slightest semblance of truth, that they 
have ever uttered a sentence in my hearing against 
these two great blessings, that I did not raise my 
voice in their defence, and they had a right to be- 
lieve that my life was not respected by myself when 
I heard these great national blessings denounced as 
a " covenant with the devil, and a league with hell !" 
He who charges me with having at any time or 
under any circumstances, got up any association, or 
united therewith, or joined any party or association, 
for any other purpose than to arrest sectionalism in 
the general elections of this nation, are foul slander- 
ers. I knew just as well fifteen years ago, that if 
they ever succeeded in a national election, that we 
should have a civil war in this country, as I now 
know that it is existing, and the most terrible ever 
known since the Christian era set it. They thus 
accuse me because of the strong stand I have always 
taken in defence of the Constitution and the Union. 
They do it because of the fearless manner in which 
I try to expose their treason, and if such a commit- 
tee ever waited on my Hicksite friend as he said this 
morning, they must have been base traitors like him- 
self. They could have had no other object in view 
(fearing I would tell on them, and expose their in- 
fidelity to the Constitution and the Union, they 



280 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

knowing that I had a personal knowledge of their 
treason) than being anxions to put me out of the 
way. 

My Hicksite friend, even in this conversation, de- 
nounced me as a traitor, and told me my only object 
in joining the Constitutional Union party was to 
encourage the slave trade; and bitterly charged 
every man who voted for Bell, Breckenridge, or 
Douglass with being traitors, and in league with the 
South for keeping up the slave trade. He who 
charges me with being favorable to the slave trade, 
either foreign or domestic, is guilty of the basest 
slander, no matter what his pretension may be. I 
have always been opposed to the slave trade, because 
it is unlawful ; still I do not believe slavery to be a 
moral evil. But if those directly interested had 
not been interfered with by those Northern traitors, 
slavery would have been the greatest blessing to the 
slaves that could be bestowed upon them in this 
world, and a blessing to the whole white population 
of this country, as much so to the New Englanclers 
as the Southerners, and all other civilized nations 
of the earth. If they should all be freed, they will 
at once become the greatest curse to themselves and 
the whole white population of the United States, 
that has ever fallen upon any free and happy people. 
I have said enough on this point in former chapters, 
therefore I will leave it for the present. 

There is not a rebel in the South who is not the 
legitimate offspring of the abolitionists. These 
Northern traitors are something like Judas Iscariot, 
Simon's son, when he said, " Why was not this 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 281 

ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given 
to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for 
the poor ; but because he was a thief, and had the 
bag, and bare what was put therein." John xii. 5-15. 
Now these abolition fanatics care no more for the 
welfare of the poor slave, than Judas did for the 
poor, when he had accepted the price and was ready 
to betray the Son of God. The abolition fanatics, 
perhaps, have got the bag, and if they succeed in 
the universal emancipation of the slaves, they of 
course expect to take charge of the government, 
and control its purse strings. If we are allowed to 
judge from what we now see divulged by their near 
approach to power, what will it be when they are 
fully installed at the head of this great nation. The 
poor negroes will lament their emancipation, if they 
should not be put on an equality with the whites, 
which every man and woman of common sense 
knows, will never be in this country; and the 
attempt to bring about such a state of social and 
political intercourse, is more devilish, if possible, than 
the Southern rebellion. If successful, it will pro- 
duce a general rebellion of the white people against 
the negroes, who are now harmless and innocent, 
only so far as they are deceived into wrong by their 
pretended white brethren ; a rebellion that will not 
cease, perhaps, until the American soil is completely 
saturated with innocent blood, from Maine to Florida, 
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This will as- 
suredly be the result of universal emancipation of 
the slaves in the United States, unless a universal 
despotism is established on the heel of emancipation 
24* 



282 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

with an immense standing army under the control 
of a single monarch. Then our abolition fanatics 
will have their wish, for in this way we shall be 
brought down and placed on an equality with 
Africans. 

It is denied by many that one of the objects of the 
republican party was the emancipation of all the 
slaves in the United States. If that is so, how came 
Congress to pass the following into laws by the ap- 
proval of the President of the United States ? 

1. "A resolution to induce the States to free their 
negroes." 

2. "An act abolishing slavery in the District of 
Columbia," without the consent of the people there. 

3. "An act empowering the negroes to carry the 
United States mails." 

4. " A new article of war, prohibiting officers in 
the army and navy, from returning the negroes to 
their masters, who run into their ranks." 

I think these acts need an explanation to make 
them harmonize with the declarations of said -party, 
that they would not interfere with slavery where it 
already existed. All four of them are unconstitu- 
tional, and will go far towards weakening the chances 
for the restoration of the Union; and every true 
unconditional Constitutional Union man, who fully 
understands its eminent glories to man, will think as 
I do, and who is not willing to jeopardize these great 
blessings to man (white or black) for the sake of 
freeing a few slaves, or for any amount of military 
glory, not even to be Commander-in-chief of the 
armies of the United States. The thought of losing 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 283 

the Union is more terrible to them than any other 
earthly calamity that could possibly befall man. If 
the restoration of the Union, with peace and har- 
mony, was the only and exclusive object sought for 
by the party in power, there would be no attempt 
to free the slaves. But it is clear to every thinking 
man, that emancipation is the main object sought for 
by many of the leaders, and a vast number of their 
constituents. 

Tell me how can these be purely Union men, and 
yet trifle with it for matters comparatively of no mo- 
ment to us for good, but fraught with evil, and even 
if successful without a complete overthrow of the 
Union, would throw us back as a prosperous nation 
at least one hundred years, and make the condition 
of the poor negro hopeless ? Don't tell me again that 
I sympathize with the Southern rebellion, for if I 
was capable of hating as bitterly as the devil hates 
Christianity, I could not satisfy myself with hatred 
to any party who favors the destruction of this great 
and glorious Union, or denies that white men are 
capable of self-government; therefore I hate the 
war and the means used, and the men who produced 
it. Abolitionism is the progenitor of this rebellion, 
and will be thus held in history. They are respon- 
sible for its origination, for all the sectional hatred 
between the North and South, and for all the de- 
struction of life, limb, and the horrors of this most 
ungodly rebellion, for all the devastation and con- 
sternation broadcast over this once happy country ; 
and for a national debt, that perhaps will reach 
before it is settled $3,000,000,000, for which we 



284 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

shall be compelled to raise by a direct tax to pay 
the annual interest, and to support a standing army, 
with the expenses of the government of at least 
§300,000,000, without reducing the principal one 
cent. In short, they are the sum and substance of 
all the sectional villiany we have had, or ever shall 
have in this nation. 

Lay off your sectional and partisan prejudices, 
and look the matter fair in the face, and you will 
see hundreds of millions of dollars being wasted to 
blind the credulous populace that they may load 
their sins on the backs of the innocent, while they 
are destroying and devastating the best government 
that ever has been or ever shall be on this earth, 
this side of the millenium. Indeed it was the fore- 
shadowing of that blessed clay. 

I will requote the peace measures offered by Jeff. 
Davis of Miss, and Eobert Toombs of Geo., that the 
reader may draw his own conclusions, by compar- 
ing the peace, love, harmony, and union we should 
now have between the extremes and throughout the 
entire country with the widespread ruin and destruc- 
tion of human life, and the thousands of millions of 
hard earned property, with the devastation and 
consternation now widespread over our country, all 
of which would have been prevented had the fol- 
lowing peace offerings been accepted by the repub- 
licans in power, or had the Crittenden Compromise 
been accepted by the same party. 

"The Proceedings* of the Senate Crisis Committee. 
Washington, Dec. 26, 18G0. The Senate Committee of 
thirteen had another meeting to-day, and discussed further 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 285 

the general subject of reconciliation ; but nothing was adopted 
which would answer as a oasis for permanent peace." 

The (then) Hon. Jefferson Davis offered the fol- 
lowing resolution, which he held to be necessary as 
an elementary principle of an adjustment that would 
satisfy the South, unless it was a division of Terri- 
tories : — 

" Resolved, That it shall be declared by amendment of the 
Constitution that property in slaves, recognized as such by 
the local law of any of the States of the Union, shall stand 
on the same footing in all Constitutional and Federal relations 
as any other species of property so recognized, and, like other 
property, shall not be subject to be divested or impaired by 
the local law of any other State, either in escape thereto or of 
transit or sojourn of the owner therein ; and in no case what- 
ever shall such property be subject to be divested or impaired 
by any legislative act of the United States, or of any of the 
Territories thereof." 

The Kepublicans voting unanimously against the 
resolution, and all the others for it, it was lost by a 
sectional vote. 

The following resolutions were then offered by 
the (then) Hon. Eobert Toombs of Georgia, and were 
lost in the same manner as the above. 

"First, That the people of the United States shall have 
an equal right to emigrate to and settle in the present or any 
future acquired Territories, with whatever property they may 
possess, including slaves, and be securely protected in its 
peaceable enjoyment until such Territory may be admitted 
as a State in the Union, with or without slavery, as she may 
determine, on an equality with all the existing States. 

" Second, That property in slaves shall be entitled to the 
same protection from the government of the United States in 
all of its departments, everywhere, which the Constitution 



286 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

confers the power upon it to extend to any other property ; 
provided nothing herein contained shall be construed to limit 
or restrain the right now belonging to every State to pro- 
hibit, abolish, or establish and protect slavery within its 
limits. 

" Third, That persons committing crimes against slave pro- 
perty in one State, and fleeing to another, shall be delivered 
up in the same manner as persons committing other crimes, 
and that the laws of the State from which such persons flee 
shall be the test of criminality." 

Now, for the sake of the common peace and hap- 
piness of the whole country, let us reason together 
and look this matter fair in the face, remembering 
that we all have the same interest at stake. We 
are all one people, east, west, north, and south, and 
every blow we strike the South, hits us just as hard 
as it does them, and vice versa. For God's and 
humanity's sake, let us now try to settle this matter 
like brethren. We can yet call a national conven- 
tion and accept the offer; it is not even now too late. 
This union will never be fully restored without 
some such settlement. We may whip the South, 
but that will not bring peace and union back to our 
distracted country ; but it will consign us to an eter- 
nal despotism, and destroy the last vestige of hope 
for the poor negro race in this country. We shall 
never know the great value of this God-created 
Union, until it is lost, and when once lost, it will be 
lost forever. Human nature can he managed by 
Gospel means, but not by coercion. The South want 
nothing but to be placed on a political equality with 
North, where they would have the same protec- 
tion and feel themselves entirely safe. Now sec 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 287 

how easy it would have been to have prevented this 
widespread ruin. May the Lord save us from such 
an interminable woe / This settlement would not add 
one slave more to the number, nor increase the num- 
ber of slave States, but would most undoubtedly 
result in making four or five of the border slave 
States free, and incalculably increase the liberty and 
happiness of the slaves in all the other slave States. 
It would end the controversy, and our peace and 
union would flow as a river until we should be 
engulfed in the Millennium. 

As I have said, we may ultimately overpower the 
Southern States, but a standing army will have to 
be kept in the field, to keep them in subjection, 
which will eat out our very vitals, and this curse 
will be our doom throughout all time. It will place 
tyrants over us, and reduce us from a self-governing 
people to slaves, and force us to social, political, and 
domestic equality with African negroes. For God's 
sake stop and think before you take another step 
towards coercion, for I tell you the displeasure of 
Omnipotence will eternally rest upon us all, and our 
political glory will be extinguished forever, and the 
bright sunbeams of our national Union will cease to 
arouse the admiration of all the civilized nations of 
the earth, and to dazzle the eyes of kings, monarchs, 
or potentates of other lands. It will veil heaven in 
sackcloth, elevate infidelity, and send a thrill or 
howl of glory throughout deep, dark damnation. 

I tell you that a union of these United States 
cannot be produced by war or coercion. A free 
Republican Union has never been nor never will be 



288 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

created or restored by coercion. Coercion and the 
sword are the legitimate weapons of monarchs, or 
the last resort against oppression ; and monarchical or 
despotic governments are the only offsprings of 
coercion by the sword. Better for us a thousand 
times we had never broken loose from our mother 
country, better for us we had never tasted complete 
liberty, and felt the exhilarating influence of a true 
union of hearts. Yea, it would have been better 
for us had the blessed Lord suffered the destroying 
angel to have swept the whole nation at one dash 
from the occupancy of this part of his vineyard, 
while we were in a state of peace, and harmony, than 
it will be for us to attempt to reconstruct or restore 
our lost Union by coercion and civil war ; for I tell 
you it will produce the very opposite and secure 
our nationtal, state, and individual ruin. The dis- 
pleasure of Jehovah is already upon us, and unless 
we change our ideas of restoration in this matter, it 
will grind us to powder. And all this because the 
Great Giver of the unbounded and unlimited bless- 
ings we have enjoyed through our great and glori- 
ous union of States, charged us with a portion of an 
accursed race, for their good and our glory and 
benefit, and by whom all the States were equally 
blessed. 

The South has been trying for more than fifty 
years to drive the negro question from the political 
arena, that the Union might be complete. They 
have offered to concede three quarters of their Con- 
st iiufional rights on the question of slavery. Eead 
the thirteen resolutions passed by a Southern con- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 289 

vention in 1850, at Nashville, Tenn., and their 
proposition voted for in 18-18, by a unanimous South 
in both Houses of Congress, to extend the Missouri 
Compromise through to the Pacific Ocean. You 
will find them in the reports of 1848 ; but those 
published above are sufficient to satisfy any true 
Union man that the Southern States did not want 
to break up this Union, but to save it in peace and 
harmony. Now don't stop to denounce me as a 
sympathizer with the Southern rebellion, for I tell 
you I hate it more than you do who are willing to 
destroy the Union to get clear of slavery. Look 
over Davis's and Toombs's offers, as above, and just 
think how different our condition would now be 
had the party in power accepted that last offer, 
though in that they asked for a great deal more 
than they ever did before, but for nothing more 
than their constitutional rights. Now, for human- 
ity, union, and peace sake, stop and think before 
you take another step to coerce the South, and let 
us call a national convention and make those amend- 
ments to the national constitution. I don't mean that 
we shall draw our armies from the field unless the 
South should withdraw theirs. 

I am told it is too late now to make any changes. 
How are we to know that it is too late if we refuse 
to make the offer ? How came the majority in the 
committee of thirteen to refuse when it was not too 
late ? Simply because it was a union saver and a 
peace restorer, and a complete abolisher of the ever- 
lasting slave question from the halls of Congress, 
and a preventer of any and every man from sad- 



290 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

dling the poor unfortunate negro, and riding him 
into power. 

The publication of this book may ride me off to 
some fort or dungeon ; if so, I must submit to my 
fate. I know that I shall go there with a conscious- 
ness that I have done all in my power to prevent the 
collision between the North and South in the first 
place, and in the second, to save this great and 
glorious nation from an everlasting overthrow. I 
shall feel guiltless, and posterity will not rise up 
and curse me for what I have done. If I could be 
the means of convincing some good men of the great 
error of forcing or coercing men and women into 
a union (we had just as well undertake to coerce 
them to be Christians), or if I should be the means 
of convincing some of my Christian brethren of the 
different means necessary to establish despotic or 
monarchical governments, and a free republican 
union, I should feel happy locked up in some fort 
for my sins against abolitionism and infidelity. I 
have many good friends whom I love much, by 
whom I shall be stigmatized as a traitor to my 
country for this publication, but if they could see 
and know my heart they would not charge me with 
such a crime. I had rather be charged with murder 
in the first degree, or with highway robbery, and 
either one would be equally true and even more proba- 
ble ; for I look upon a traitor as being far worse than 
either. No patriot will interfere with the constitu- 
tional and lawful rights of any State, and he who 
does it is a traitor, and ought to be hung up by the 
neck until he is dead. True patriots are willing to 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 291 

yield to any man or set of men or States all of 
their lawful rights and a little more for the sake of 
the general good of their country ; especially to save 
it from a civil war, and any refusal of the majority to 
yield to the minority all of their constitutional rights 
is treason, braggadocio, bullyism, and infidelity. 

All abolitionists are not traitors in the true sense 
of the word, for I know some true men who are 
abolitionists, but not of the Garrisonian stripe. See 
what a condition we are in just by refusing the mi- 
nority their Constitutional rights in our National 
Commonwealth, and how righteously easy it would 
have been to have prevented all this national and 
individual ruin. If our leaders had been true 
unadulterated patriots in the free States, all would 
now be happy and prosperous, east, west, north and 
south. The South may soon be conquered in war, but 
our glorious Union will never be restored with 
peace, harmony, and tranquillity, without some such 
concessions as asked for in the offers above. 

I will close this chapter with a short quotation 
from a speech made by the Hon. John Q. Adams 
not long before his death, before the New York 
Historical Society. 

How truly does he say, "but the indissoluble link 
of the Union between the people of the several 
States of this confederated nation, is, after all, not 
in the right, but in the heart" and also "far better 
will it be for the people of the disunited States, to 
part in friendship with each other, than be held together 
by constraint" 

" In calm hours of self-possession, the right of a State to 



292 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

nullify an act of Congress, is too absurd for argument, and 
too odious for discussion. The right of a State to secede from 
the Union is equally disowned by the principles of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. Nations acknowledge no judge be- 
tween them upon earth, and their governments from necessity, 
must in their intercourse with each other decide when the 
failure of one party to a contract to perform its obligations, 
absolves the other from the reciprocal fulfilment of his own. 
But this last of earthly powers is not necessary to the freedom 
or independence of States, connected together by the immedi- 
ate action of the people, of whom they consist. To the people 
alone is there reserved, as well the dissolving, as the con- 
stituent power, and that power can be exercised by them only 
under the tie of conscience, binding them to retributive justice 
of Heaven. 

"With these qualifications, we may admit the same right as 
vested in the people of every State in the Union, with reference 
to the General Government, which was exercised by the people 
of the United Colonies, with reference to the supreme head of 
the British empire, of which they formed a part — and under 
these limitations, have the people of each State in the Union 
a right to secede from the confederated Union itself. 

" Thus stands the right. But the indissoluble link of Union 
between the people of the several States of this confederated 
nation, is, after all, not in the right, but in the heart. If the 
day should ever come (may Heaven avert it) when the affec- 
tions of the people of these States shall be alienated from 
each other ; when the fraternal spirit shall give way to cold 
indifference, or collisions of interest shall fester into hatred, 
the band of political association will not long hold together 
parties no longer attracted by the magnetism of conciliated 
interests and kindly sympathies ; and far better will it be for 
the people of the disunited States, to part in friendship with 
each other, than to be held together by constraint. Then 
will be the time for reverting to the precedents which oc- 
curred at the formation and adoption of the Constitution, to 
form again a more perfect Union, by dissolving that which 
could no longer bind, and to leave the separated parts to be 
reunited by the law of political gravitation to the centre." 



CHAPTER VI. 

Have the Friends or Quakers Produced this War? 

I have very often heard it said that the Quakers 
were all abolitionists, and consequently bad citizens. 
There is an impression throughout the free States, as 
well as the slave States, that the society of Friends 
were among the leaders, if not the instigators or 
originators, and perpetuators of all the schemes of 
abolitionism in the United States, and that they 
were contrivers and engineers of the underground 
railroad, and all other schemes of slave stealing 
ever concocted in this country. That their object 
is to get their labor for nothing, and I have often 
heard stories similar to the following told on them. 
That they would contrive to get the slaves to run 
away from their masters, and take them in their 
employ, and agree to pay them ten dollars per 
month, and board them for ten months, the wages to 
be paid at the end of the time. They worked them 
very hard, from the first of March to the middle of 
December, at which time they would inform the 
runaways that they had just got news that their 
masters were in the neighborhood after them, and 
that they must take the railroad immediately for 
Canada, or they would be caught ; and frighten the 
25* ( 293 ) 



294 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

poor darkies out of their wits. They would have 
their tickets ready through to Canada, and pack up 
provisions enough to last them through, and then 
say they would send their wages as soon as they 
sold their crops ; so the poor negroes would run 
into Canada penniless. But their Quaker friend 
would never send the wages. And in that way 
they would get their ten months' labor for their 
board, and about twenty dollars. The underground 
railroad would bring them another supply for spring, 
who would be carried through the same manoeuvres, 
and run off in the same way, and so on, they would 
get their work done in that way for almost nothing. 
These charges are false, and as slanderous as the 
charges of cruelties against the Southern slavehold- 
ers. The Orthodox Quakers have never meddled 
with slavery except in a lawful way, and that, I be- 
lieve, has only happened in a few special cases, and 
then by lawful petitioning. There are no better 
citizens in the world than the Orthodox Friends; 
they have always attended strictly to their own 
business, and let other people's alone; which if all 
others here in the North had done, the present trou- 
ble would never been known or thought of, and the 
Quakers of North Carolina would be as happy to- 
day, as their brethren were twenty years ago in the 
North, and there would be a perfect business Union 
this day between the Quakers of the free States and 
the slaveholders of Charleston, South Carolina, and 
the slaveholders of the South would be allowed this 
day, and at all times, to travel through the free 
States anywhere, with their body bond-servants, un- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 295 

molested ; and Quakers would this day be in Charles- 
ton, from free States, attending to their business, and 
would be respected and loved there, as they are here 
at their homes. 

Think of it. What a different state of things we 
should have to-day. And how quick peace would 
be declared, and everybody at their homes attend- 
ing to their legitimate business, if every man 
would suddenly imbibe the principles of the Qua- 
kers in attending to their own business strictly and 
let other people's alone. 

I have been intimately acquainted with the Socie- 
ty of Friends for thirty years, and have had a great 
many business transactions with them, some of long 
continuation, and some short, and have made as 
many settlements, and I can testify to their correct- 
ness and honesty in all their transactions in life. 
I have never known one to be troublesome or quar- 
relsome in a single case. They believe in " render- 
ing unto Cesar the things that are Cesar's, and unto 
God the things that are God's." 

The Quakers are anti-slavery in principle and 
in fact ; they are not slave-holders, and do not allow 
their members to own them, either directly or indi- 
rectly. But they are a law-abiding people, and 
are opposed to any interference with the laws of 
other States. They never have interfered with 
slavery beyond their own society ; they say they are 
not responsible for the institution of slavery in this 
country. I have had many conversations with them 
on the subject, and some warm arguments ; they 
differ with me on the divine institution of slavery, 



296 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

but many of them agree with me on many points. 
One is that the negro race is a lower grade of beings, 
and the two races never can be on an equality to- 
gether in this world. And many of them say the 
slaves are better off where they are than they would 
be free. They are honest, upright, and sober, and 
are not apt to speak unless they have something to 
say. They are generally magnanimous, generous, 
and slow to anger ; and very liberal where need be, 
and mostly kind in their dispositions. Of course they 
have some scabby sheep among them. But on the 
general they are outwardly all that pertains to a 
true Christian people, which must flow from a pure 
fountain within. 

I don't know that I ever saw one angry, or the 
least excited. This gives them great advantage in 
debate, and they are mostly very respectful to 
the feelings of others. Upon the general, they are 
as near perfection as a society can be in all their 
walks in this world. And I believe, had they not 
rejected the sacraments, as a Christian society, they 
would now control a great part of this world, pro- 
vided they had kept up their present principles as 
they have mostly done. 

I am not a Quaker nor never was, and never had 
a relation that was. And I believe there was not 
one in the county in which I was born and raised. 
There were some in the adjoining county. I am 
not now connected with them in any way whatever, 
and I have no personal interest in them to influence 
me to speak for them. They take care of their own 
poor, and never allow them to suffer want. I never 



AFKICAN" SLAVEEY. , • 297 

saw one a beggar, or in the county almshouse. 
They have their own asylums for the poor. I 
think they are somewhat in error in their ecclesi- 
astical arrangements. But, upon the whole, they 
are the most upright, straightforward, and consist- 
ent citizens in this country. 

I made a remark of this kind the other day to a 
gentleman, and he said that could not be, for he 
thought Passmore Williamson was a very meddle- 
some man, and he was a Quaker. I told him I had 
known Mr. Williamson for twenty -five years, and 
knew he had not been a member of the Orthodox 
Meeting for many years; therefore they are not 
responsible for his conduct. .Though I know no- 
thing whatever against his character, but his fanati- 
cal notions of slavery, which I think have arisen 
from great zeal without knowledge on that great 
subject. 

I have often thought that if the national Legisla- 
ture were made entirely of Orthodox Quakers for 
six years, we should have such an example set that 
would do the nation good. I believe every article 
and section of the constitution and laws would be 
carried out and executed to the letter, even the 
fugitive slave clause, for they are a law-loving, and 
law-abiding people. They have, from George Fox 
down to the present, made it a part of their religion 
to respect the laws of the land. And yet they have 
been subjects of great persecutions at times, even in 
this country, and by professing Christians too. The 
Puritans persecuted them to death in some cases, in 
New England, where all the abominations have 



298 - AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

been conceived and born, that have brought about 
the awful crisis now in this nation, that perhaps has 
ended the freedom and happiness of us all, in trying 
to free those that God never intended to have tem- 
poral freedom. For when Noah said a servant of 
servants he shall be to his brethren, He, Jehovah, 
named no time this servitude should cease. He did 
not say, until you are sufficiently punished, or until 
you have repented, and have acknowledged your 
crime against your old parent. But we are left to 
suppose it will run through all time, and prevent 
their freedom, and social equality. He has given^ 
them a more loathsome and obnoxious appearance 
to nearly all the senses of their brethren, the descend- 
ants of Shem and Japheth ; so much so, that social 
and domestic equality is impossible, and their free- 
dom would be the means of their extermination. 
I have sufficiently discussed this point in the first 
and second chapters, to which I refer the reader. 

I say the Quakers have done nothing to produce 
this war between brethren of the same family. 

A great many people seem not to be aware that 
there was a split in the Society of Friends in 1827, 
on the atonement. Elias Hicks took the ground 
that there was no more virtue in the shedding of 
Christ's blood than that of a bull or a ram ; and he 
had many followers ; and the Orthodox Society was 
cleansed thereby from fanaticism and discord. The 
new societies are called the Hicksites. They are en- 
tirely independent of the Orthodox Quakers or Fox- 
ites. And the Orthodox are not responsible for any 
doings of the Hicksites no more than they are for the 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 299 

doings of Passmore Williamson, or any other anti- 
slavery fanatic. There are many Garrisonians among 
the Hicksites, and infidelity prevails among them 
to a very great extent, and in nearly all the infidel 
associations that come along, we find a large sprink- 
ling of Hicksite Quakers, and at the public contro- 
versies that have taken place between Christians and 
infidels, we find very prominent Hicksite Quakers 
in attendance, and on the side of infidelity. The 
last controversy of the kind I attended was at Con- 
cert Hall, between Dr. Berg, D. D., of Philadelphia, 
and an Englishman named Barker who was once a 
minister of the Gospel of Christ ; at which I saw a 
number, yes many of the disciples of Hicks seated 
through the house, and some on the platform, all of 
whom seemed to be on the side of infidelity. I was 
personally acquainted with a number I saw there 
of that class, all of whom seemed to exult more 
than any others whenever a hard blow would be 
let loose against Christianity by that celebrated 
infidel, by shouting, and stamping their feet, and 
clapping their hands, or pounding the floor with 
their canes. They followed this deserter from the 
Kingdom of God into the kingdom of the devil, 
the Sunday Institute, that was got up to blaspheme 
the name of the Son of God; they there worship 
at the feet of infidelity. 

I cannot say that this self-styled society of Friends 
has had nothing to do with this awful calamity that 
is now afflicting this country from centre to circum- 
ference. For the only religion they seem to profess, 
is to oppose the atonement of our blessed Lord, and 



300 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

denounce slavery and slaveholders. They have 
dealt largely in the many publications that have so 
embittered the present generation of the free States 
against the slaveholders of the South and all the 
Southern people, except the poor negroes who are 
always better off and happier than the five-sixths of 
the poor people of the free States. I have heard 
some of them express themselves exultingly over 
the war now prevailing, and say many thousand 
lives may be lost, but the slaves would be set at 
liberty, and that would pay for all. 

Those are the people that have, given the Ortho- 
dox Quakers a bad name, a great many people 
not knowing that Apollyon had assailed the genuine 
ranks of the true Friends, and made many disciples, 
who formed themselves into a separate and independ- 
ent society, and have closed the only door against 
themselves ever opened for eternal life. But among 
them are many useful citizens, and outside of their 
religious views of the atonement and their activity 
against slavery, they are much the same as the Or- 
thodox. 

The true Quakers are among the leaders in all 
the great improvements in the country. They have 
a great many rich men among them ; and we have 
had the Copes, the Browns, the Woods, &c. &c, and 
they have not withheld their hands from any good 
thing. They are never hasty in any new improve- 
ment ; but, when once started, they are untiring in 
their perseverance. 

The Quakers, from George Fox down, have been 
opposed to war. In this they have been proverbial 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 301 

or celebrated for their opposition to all war and 
bloodshed, and the Quakers of the Revolution that 
entered the battle-field, were disowned, or excommu- 
nicated ; they were called the fighting or free Qua- 
kers, and had their meeting house in this city at the 
S. W. corner of Fifth and Arch Sts. f but I don't 
think they have worshipped there for many years. 
It was said that they had to have Quaker preaching 
there a certain number of times every year, but 
they had no preachers. Yet some one of their mem- 
bers would go there at the appointed time, and go 
through the manoeuvres. It was said the meeting 
house was left to them in that way. I do not vouch 
for those reports. 

But I find a significant change has come over 
many of the Friends. The Hicksites seem nearly 
all to approve of the present civil war. This is 
strange, for they have always taken the ground that 
when attacked they would not resist by force of 
arms, but fold their hands and trust in the Lord for 
redemption. The disciples of Elias Hicks were 
celebrated for this kind of defence. But, strange 
to say, they seem to encourage the prosecution of this 
war to the hilt, to the steel, and to the death. And 
all the stories we ever heard told about the mild- 
ness of the Quaker in the time of an attack, showed 
them to be celebrated for compromise in order to 
make peace. And above all their great coolness 
when in the hands of an enemy of any kind, so that 
the worst of men have been made to love them, and 
offer terms of compromise, even when they had all 
26 



\ 

302 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

in their hands. Very many such stories have been 
told about them, to illustrate their cool wit and lib- 
erality to enemies and all others, under all circum- 
stances of life. Therefore is it not wonderful that 
they should be opposed to any peace measures being 
introduced in order to settle the present trouble in 
some way to save the Union without the shedding 
of blood ? 

How are we to account for this among this class of 
Quakers ? I don't say all of them, but many or most 
of them. Why did they and all others that went in 
for the success of the party now in power, say one 
year ago that there was no danger, that no attempt 
would be made by the South to secede from the 
Union, let who would be elected ; that even South 
Carolina could not be kicked out of the Union. 
Such declarations were made by all the leaders of 
the successful party, and their followers, in reply to 
the declarations made by the opposition, that the 
success of the republicans would produce this trou- 
ble, unless they nominated and elected men who 
were known in the South not to be abolitionists. 
And why do they say now this trouble had to come 
anyhow, and let us push it through at the mouth of 
the cannon, at the point of the bayonet, and at the 
edge of the sword ? Why did they then pronounce 
such anathemas upon us for foretelling these calami- 
ties? And now why do they denounce us as seces- 
sionists, and rebels against the government, because 
we tell them the only way to save the Union, and 
have a perpetual peace, will be to give the South her 
equal rights in the territories of the United States, 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 303 

and give them such guaranties as will make them 
feel safe in the Union with us. 

I ask this question of all that I talk with 
who differ with me, and the only reply I get is : It 
had to be, and therefore there was no way to avoid 
it. I ask, have you tried any other way ? Did we 
not tell you that your way would produce destruc- 
tion to this heaven-like Union ? And did you not 
tell us we were only sensationists, fools, and locofoco 
lick-spittles, and all such hard things ? Now if we 
were such good prophets then, and foretold just what 
has come to pass, why not respect us now, when we 
tell you, under the same prophetic vision, that war 
will never save this Union ? We may subdue the 
South, but I tell you again the white man has never 
yet been conquered nor never will be by force. He 
may be subdued by an overpowering force, and 
held in subjugation by the same ; but he cannot be 
conquered. I mean he will never submit volunta- 
rily, and love the place into which he is forced, or the 
power that compelled him. 

Negroes can be conquered and made to love the 
power that holds them; it is congenial with their 
nature, and so of some of the mixed races. But 
the descendants of Shem have never been conquered 
into an affectionate submission, except by an equal 
compromise made in love, and by claiming them as 
equal in every particular. So if we want our Union , 
restored, it must be done by peace measures offered 
in love, by acknowledging our Southern brethren to 
be our equals, and giving them their equal rights in 



304 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

all the territories that now belongs or may hereafter 
belong to the United States. 

The time was when the extension of the Missouri 
compromise to the Pacific Ocean would have done, 
and saved us. But it will not now, I fear. If we 
continue to shout, no compromise with traitors, and 
determine to subjugate them, mark my words, our 
die is cast, and our doom fixed. Every republican 
that has studied the history of the questions that 
now divide us, knows well what would be the re- 
sult of the success of the republican party. And 
when they persuaded the people that there was no 
danger in their success, they knew just as well as 
the devil did when he beguiled Eve, and said thou 
shalt not surely die, that death would be the result. 
That result was just what he wanted, and the eman- 
cipation of all the slaves is just what certain leaders 
of the republican party wanted, and still want, or 
there would be no trouble in settling this question. 
This is the answer to my question, and the only cor- 
rect answer that can be given. 

I would ask my Hicksite friends, what they ex- 
pect to gain by the emancipation of all the slaves ? 
Have you ever studied the human nature of the 
Anglo-Americans ? Do you suppose for one mo- 
ment, that he will ever be put on an equality with 
Africans, or allow them to have equal rights with 
the white man? If you do, you will be disap- 
pointed, for that day will never come ? God never 
intended it should be so, and you never knew one, 
that went down to their level, that did not fall far 
below them, and was looked upon with disgust and 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 805 

contempt by all good citizens. What is that beauti- 
ful white girl thought of after she has become the 
wife of the African ? Or what is that nice-looking 
and polite, chaste, and accomplished, white man 
thought of by all good people, who has chosen, and 
taken to himself a black, notty-headed negro woman 
for a wife ? Think of it ; this is the only way of be- 
ing on an equality. 

You say the white people of the South have 
children by their negro women. If they do, they 
take care of the mother and offspring. And so also 
do the white men of the North have children by 
black women, in much larger proportion to numbers 
than what is done in the South; and they leave 
mother and child to starve, or live upon the slops 
from the swill-tub provided for the hogs. We don't 
deny these facts, they are truths that stare us in the 
face daily. I would ask my Hicksite friends in what 
kind of esteem they hold men who do those things. 
If you find out who they are, are they not loathsome 
to your very soul whenever you think of them, and 
do you not hate and shun them wherever you see 
them ? We know persons of strong passions and 
degraded by bad company and intoxicating drink, 
yield to such passions in the moment of temptation. 
But ask that man, if he is willing to be placed on 
a public and perpetual equality with the black man, 
and his very soul will revolt within him at the in- 
sulting question, while he will answer no. 

I know some steps have been taken in New Eng- 
land towards a political equality. They are allowed 
to vote in some of those States, and in New York 
26* 



306 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

on certain contingencies. That has been done for 
effect, and if all the slaves were emancipated, those 
liberties would be abolished in less than three years, 
and an animosity and prejudice would spring up 
against the poor negroes that would be more terrible 
than any slavery ever known on this earth. A large 
proportion of the liberties of the so-called free ne- 
groes of the free States, is the certain result of a 
hatred to the slaveholders of the South. Those 
liberties are given in some of the free States to try 
to prejudice the slave States, and to set the slaves 
against their masters. And I say again that the 
only safety in this country for the negro race, is to 
keep them in slavery; for universal emancipation 
will bring about a universal sweeping from Ameri- 
can soil the entire colored race in some way. That 
will go hard with the poor negroes, and that awful 
conflict may commence where abolitionism did, and 
among those who have been the strongest opponents 
of slavery, will be found the first who will move to 
drive them out of the country. 

I have many friends among the Hicksite Quakers, 
and I hold them in the high esteem, for when I was 
a stranger they took me in, and gave me my start 
in the world. But, alas ! it now turns out too much 
like the cow that gave a large pail of milk, and 
when done, she up foot and kicked it all over. So 
I fear my friends have, by their conduct towards the 
South, aided largely in upsetting the pail that was 
so nearly filled. The Orthodox Quakers never have 
voted so nearly all one way as the LTicksites. They 
were mostly "Whigs in Mr. Clay's time ; yet they 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 307 

were somewhat divided between the two great 
parties, and last fall a great many of them voted for 
John Bell, and a good many for Judge Douglas ; 
and even some for Mr. Breckinridge, and others for 
Mr. Lincoln. So their vote was not a sectional one. 
They are true to their country as a people, and 
they do not make abolitionism their religion. They 
embrace Christ as their only hope of salvation. They 
were charged by some of being privy to the John 
Brown raid at Harper's Ferry, Yirginia, in conse- 
quence of which they made the following declara- 
tions, which will show that I have not misrepresented 
them. I cannot but admire the principles set forth 
in the declarations, however much I may differ with 
them on a few points ; but they nowhere call the 
masters thieves, murderers, and robbers, simply 
because they are slave-holders ; but friends, in an 
humble, affectionate, and Christian-like manner. 
Which, if all other anti-slavery men had done like- 
wise, our national peace would flow this day like 
a river, and our Union and prosperity would be 
limited only by the bounds of our country. By the 
bounds of our country did I say ? I should have 
said unparalleled on the face of the globe. See the 
declaration of the Foxites, who are the Orthodox 
Quakers : — 

11 At a Meeting of the Representatives of the Religious So- 
ciety of Friends, in Pennsylvania, New- Jersey, Delaware, 
Sec, held in Philadelphia, Third Month 16th, 1860 :— 

"Several articles have appeared in the public Journals 
within a few months past — some in the form of Letters, dated 
and written in the plain style used by Friends ; — and others as 



308 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

proceedings of Meetings in which persons designated as 
Friends took part ; — which articles seem to sanction the use 
of force to free the Slaves, and also to connive at efforts to 
subvert the government ; and as those who are unacquainted 
with our principles and practices may be thereby led to im- 
plicate the Society in such views and proceedings, we believe 
it right, on behalf of those we represent, to disclaim any 
unity therewith, and to repel an imputation so unjust and 
injurious to the religion Friends have always professed. 

" In compliance with the precepts of the Saviour of the 
world, which breathe peace on earth and good-will to men, 
and command us to love our enemies, and to do good to them 
that hate us and persecute us ; our religious Society has stead- 
fastly maintained a testimony against all wars and fightings, 
tumults, violence, and shedding of blood, and against forcible 
resistance to oppression, whether inflicted with or without color 
of law; and has believed it to be a duty to live peaceably under 
the authorities placed over us — to obey the laws of our country 
where they do not infringe on our religious principles ; and 
where they do, passively and patiently to endure the penalties 
inflicted on us. 

" The Society of Friends has long borne a decided testi- 
mony against holding our fellow men in bondage, as being 
incompatible with the benign spirit of the Gospel, and con- 
trary to the commands of our Lord Jesus Christ; Matt. vii. 
12 ; John xiii. 34, 35 ; xv. 12, 17, &c. ; and those members 
who once held slaves, long since set them free, and in many 
instances remunerated them for their labor while in bondage. 
This testimony is as dear to us now as ever ; and v we feel 
religiously bound to uphold it in the spirit of meekness and 
in that Christian love which craves the welfare of both mas- 
ter and slave. 

" While convinced of the injustice and wrongs attendant on 
the system of Slavery, we cannot approve of, or sympathize 
with, any forcible or violent measures to obtain the liberty, or 
to redress the grievances of the Slaves ; but have counselled 
them to endeavor to serve with patience and fidelity while in 
bondage, to fulfil their Christian duties with propriety, and to 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 309 

commit their cause into the hands of a merciful and omnipo- 
tent Father in heaven. 

" Whatever any persons, unjustly assuming the name or the 
appearance of Friends, may have said or done, which is incon- 
sistent with these principles, is contrary to the faith and the 
practice of the religious Society of Friends, and cannot justly 
be charged upon it. 

" Signed on behalf and by direction of the meeting aforesaid. 
JOSEPH SNOWDON, Clerk." 

I disagree with my Orthodox friend on the moral 
question of slavery in the abstract. That difference 
is caused simply by their confounding spiritual 
precepts and examples with temporal, though I do 
not know that they declare slavery to be a moral 
evil, but they strongly intimate the doctrine. The 
introduction of Christianity into the world was not 
intended to change a man's temporal condition in 
the world, but his spiritual condition only ; so far as 
he would be improved by becoming a true Christian, 
he would be entitled to all the benefits thereof, by 
his increased worth. If he should continue to love 
and fear God, he would rise higher and higher in 
the scale of confidence, love, and respect ; whatever 
his condition or situation might be in life. "What is 
the greatest boon or blessing of this life ? Is it not to 
have the confidence of all that know us, especially 
those who are concerned in us ? What will drive a 
good man, or even a bad man * to distraction sooner 
than to be sensible of having lost the confidence of his 
neighbors and friends, and especially those who have 
an interest in them? Kighteousness is the only 
staff of pleasure, if it is unadulterated and constant, 
so that it becomes patent to all that know us. 



310 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

The good slaves are the happiest people I have 
ever seen. They have privations, and great priva- 
tions, it is true. And we have our privations. Theirs 
are singular, while ours are plural. While they are 
deprived of the liberty of working for whoever 
they please, they have no other concern in this 
world, but the salvation of their souls. Their bread, 
meat, drink, and homes are provided for them ; they 
are not troubled about the future of this life in any 
way whatever. While we are far greater slaves 
than they. We are equally deprived of such liber- 
ties as we desire ; and what is our concern about the 
future? How many white people are driven to 
distraction, and thrown into consternation at this 
time ? Is it the case with the slaves, except those on 
or near the battle-ground? What are the pains and 
aches of the entire white population of the United 
States at this time, while the slaves of the South 
are fully provided for, and they feel no concern 
whatever, but to take care of their masters' property, 
and to prepare for heaven ? What is the painful 
concern and solicitude of at least twelve millions of 
the white people of the free States, at all times, who 
are dependent on their daily labor for bread, and a 
home for themselves, their wives, and little ones. 
They are dependent upon their employers, and they 
know if thrown out of employment their families 
must suffer, for they have had to stint themselves 
and families in the necessaries of life, all the way 
through, to make their inadequate earnings keep 
them along. So if they lose their situations, they 
arc thrown upon the cold charities of the world. 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 311 

Compared to this, the slavery of the South is a bliss, 
it is a heaven and glory. 

If our Saviour had fixed a temporal standard, or 
condition in this life for us to arrive to before we 
could embrace Christ as our Saviour, how many 
millions would be debarred, and sink into ever- 
lasting despair ? But, blessed be his name, that is 
not the case. He is just suited to every man's case 
and condition in this life ; and it is not required 
that any man should change his temporal relations 
in life, provided they are lawful. 

We have an account of slavery since 2348 years 
before Christ, and slaves were the rightful property 
of their masters from that time until nearly 100 
years after his ascension, and the entire Old and 
New Testament Scriptures were written after its 
introduction, and most of the patriarchs and pro- 
phets were slave owners. Yet, strange to say, not 
one single word was uttered against it in the whole 
book of God. Slavery still existed extensively in 
the time of the Evangelists and Apostles, and yet 
no one of the writers gives the slightest intima- 
tion that it was a moral evil. That book being the 
only moral guide ever given, and slavery being one 
of the fruits of the fall, or consequences of sin having 
entered into the world, therefore it is no more 
sin in itself than all other afflictions poor sinful 
men are subjected to in this world. 

I will now close up with my Orthodox brethren, 
by telling a little story to illustrate their usual plan 
of interfering with slavery : — 

Worner Miflin was an influential member of 



312 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

Friends' meeting, and a man of talent and great 
moral courage, and a large amount of philanthropy. 
He was untiring in his efforts to get a master to set 
Joe, a slave, free. His frequent conversations and 
intercessions on behalf of Joe became annoying to 
his master ; therefore he said to Worner one morn- 
ing, that he was welcome at all times at his house 
whenever he visited Virginia ; but I say now, you 
must never speak to me again about the emancipa- 
tion of Joe, for that he should not do. Worner told 
the slaveholder he certainly would not, if it was 
unpleasant to him. But requested of the master to 
allow him to hold a conversation with Joe, and he 
would never mention the subject again. The mas- 
ter consented, and told him where he could see Joe 
at a certain hour. The master concealed himself 
near the spot, and Worner Miflen made his appear- 
ance, and said to Joe: I have seen thy master time 
after time to try to obtain thy freedom; I have done 
all in my power, but thy master cannot spare thee. 
I have called on thee to say, thy master is a very 
good man, and thee must be a faithful servant until 
the day of thy death. Love thy master, and obey 
him in all things; be not slack in thy duty to thy 
master at any time. And above all, never leave 
him without his consent, and let his will be thy will 
through life, and thou shalt have thy reward in 
heaven. Worner bid Joe farewell and left him. 

At the dinner-table next day, the master said to 
Worner that he had heard all his conversation the 
day before with Joe, and I expected thee was going 
to persuade Joe to run away, but thy honor has so 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 313 

affected me, that I say to thee now, that Joe is a free 
man from this hour. 

This is a complete illustration of the true prin- 
ciples of the Orthodox Friends — this is now their 
true character. Therefore, I say, if they had been 
the ruling power of the free States, we should now 
be in no trouble with our southern brethren. I 
have endeavored to give an outline of the true char- 
acter of the true Quakers, and if I have in any way 
erred, they must pardon me, for I have aimed at 
right. 



27 



CHAPTER VII. 

Do as you would be done by. 

" Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should 
do to you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the law and the 
prophets." — Matt. vii. 12. 

I don't know that I ever had a controversy with 
an abolitionist on the moral question of slavery who 
did not quote the above text to condemn it, and to 
prove that the institution of American slavery should 
be abolished at once by church and state, because 
(say they), "We, the people," feel that we would not 
like to be slaves to the African race ; and also to 
prove that if we refuse to give our influence for 
negro emancipation, we sin against both heaven and 
earth. They seem to take it for granted that negro 
slavery is a great moral evil under all circumstances, 
and no power of heaven or earth can make it other- 
wise, and think this precept is entirely one-sided in 
its bearing (or say so at least), forgetting that the 
slaveholders are partners in the great contest 
between the North and South of this country, and 
in the precept of our Lord above quoted. They for- 
get that the slaveholder has a right to this text to 
shelter himself from the barbed arrows of abolition- 
ists. For the slaveholders say, if the abolitionists 
( S14 ) 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 315 

would only obey this glorious precept, they would 
have peace and rest in all their borders. The abo- 
litionists seem to think that this great moral precept 
was given exclusively for the benefit of the free 
States and negroes, and that " We, the people" have 
no protection under its beneficent hand from impo- 
sition and slander. Yet, if abolitionists could only 
be prevailed upon to obey this the best of all 
precepts, we should now have peace and harmony 
throughout this whole nation, instead of being on 
the verge of ruin by a most bloody civil contest. 
It would bring us to the very threshold of the great 
Millennium spoken of by Christ. 

This text is in the words of our Lord himself, and 
no man can be his true follower and disobey it. If 
the abolitionists do not disobey it in all its require- 
ments, no person on this earth does. 

Suppose an abolitionist had a relative in Alabama, 
owning two hundred slaves, who should die, leaving 
all of his servants to his only heir, an abolitionist in 
Boston, what would you have the abolition heir to 
do, who should happen to be a very poor man? 
Your answer would be, free them or have nothing 
to do with them. Now, you know the laws of the 
South are such that the slaves must have a master 
to take care of them or to set them free, for none 
but a legal owner could free them, and without a 
legal claimant they would all be sold by the sheriff, 
to the highest bidders, which would scatter them to 
the four winds. Then, you say, let him go and take 
charge of them and free them. But you know the 
law does not allow them to be freed and left there. 



316 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

Therefore you would be compelled, in order to free 
them, to take them to a free State. And if you 
should send them to a free State without equipping 
them suitably for the journey, and give them some- 
thing to subsist upon until they could procure a 
livelihood, you would not be doing for them as you 
would be done by. And if you should conclude to 
send them to free States, it would cost you at least 
one hundred dollars each — that would amount to 
twenty thousand dollars. Suppose this amount 
should be raised to bring them awaj^, and when you 
commence operations you should find at least two 
hundred more belonging to other men, who were 
wives, husbands, children, parents, brothers, and sis- 
ters of your two hundred slaves, what would you do 
then? To separate man and wife, and parents and 
children, would not be doing as you would be done 
by. To purchase them would be dealing in human 
blood, and if you should get over that point, it would 
take perhaps at least two hundred thousand dollars 
to purchase them. Suppose that amount could be 
raised, and you should find that their masters would 
not sell them, then would you separate man and wife 
by bringing yours to a free State ? You know that 
this is one of your great objections to slavery ; there- 
fore, you could not do that, and "do as you would be 
done by. 11 If you should resolve to have nothing to 
do with them, then all of them would be sold to the 
highest bidder. Parents and children, husbands and 
wives, would be separated never to see each other 
again. Let this abolitionist heir suppose himself to 
be a slave, and the husband of one of Ms women, 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 317 

who belongs to another owner, would he not have 
his master to purchase him ; that he might go with 
his loved wife? 

Now you must bear in mind that a negro hus- 
band, wife, child, or parent has the same protection 
under this glorious precept of our Lord, that the 
white abolitionist has. And no man has a right to 
claim what would infringe upon the moral or civil 
rights of others under this righteous law : " To do 
to others all things whatsoever you would have them 
to do to you." No man can be a Christian and 
'disobey this counsellor, and an authorized Christian 
minister who does not respect this law, is simply a 
moral devil. 

Suppose a murderer was arraigned before the 
court for sentence, and the criminal should say to 
the court : If your honor was in my place, and I in 
yours, I know you would have me to discharge 
you, and allow you to go out free, therefore you 
must do as you would be done by, and discharge 
me from custody, or you will be a criminal before 
God, and suffer eternal wrath for your disobedience 
in this glorious precept of his. This has just as 
much reason in it, as applying the precepts to the 
civil relation of master and slave. All that is 
taught by this counsel of Christ is, that the master 
should treat his slaves just as he would have them 
to treat him if circumstances were reversed, and he, 
a negro slave to one of them. Of course he would 
have his master to treat him the very best that 
could be under all the circumstances. So the mas- 
27* 



318 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

ters are all morally bound to treat their slaves the 
very best that all the circumstances would allow, by 
giving them good wholesome food sufficient for 
their real wants, with comfortable clothing, and 
never to put on them more than they can bear with- 
out injury, and not to injure them in any way what- 
ever. When he has done this, he has fulfilled this 
law so far as the law of master and slaves is con- 
cerned. If the master does not do this he will be held 
to a fearful responsibility, and he will have to render 
a fearful account in that great day of God. The re- 
lations of men are not to be changed to fulfil this- 
divine precept. 

This text is applicable to every transaction of 
this life, and no man is required by it to give away all 
of his property. But if we go out to sell a horse, we 
must not try to make the purchaser believe what we 
know is not the truth, in order to 'get more than the 
value. " We must do as we would be done by," if 
we were purchasing. The abolitionists are bound by 
the same precepts ; that is, to do to the slave-owner 
just as they would Ipe done by if they were owners 
of slaves. And he is bound to place himself, by 
supposition, in a slave State with a large number of 
slaves, for whose maintenance he is responsible, and 
there ask himself the question, how would he have 
men to treat him as a slave-holder. If he can make 
up his mind that he would like to be called a tyrant, 
thief, robber, and murderer, simply because he is a 
slave owner, then he, as an abolitionist, has a right 
to say hard things of the slave owner. He must 
do as he would be done by if circumstances were 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 519 

reversed ; and if he does not do as lie would be done 
by, lie will be held to a fearful account. 

A slave is bound by the same rule to do justice 

to his master in all things, just as he would have a 

* slave to do to him if he had one, and if he does 

not render faithful service to his master, he will be 

held by the moral law as a thief and robber. 

'He who persuades or steals a slave away from his 
master, simply to get him away, has committed a 
crime, for which there is no punishment adequate. 
He does not only steal a man from his legal owner, 
but he runs him into a climate that is not congenial 
to his nature, and leaves him there to starve and die. 
Therefore, he is not only a man-stealer, but a tyrant 
and murderer. 

It seems clear to my mind that if this precept of 
our Lord was understood by the whole Christian 
church as the abolitionists pretend to understand 
it, it would be fatal to almost-^every business in- 
terest on the earth, it would encourage all kinds 
of villainy and wrong, punish the innocent and let 
the guilty go free. It is a moral precept in which 
we cannot always judge another. Every man must 
be his own judge, and if every man was religi- 
ously honest, no man would then desire another 
to do for him what he would not do for another 
under the same circumstances. The abolitionists 
require the masters to do for their slaves what they 
(the abolitionists) would not do, were they placed 
under the same circumstances. And they have 
reason to believe that they require the master to do 
for the slave what the slave feels in his own heart 



320 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

he would not do for his master were circumstances 
reversed between him and his master. 

The abolitionists have introduced a new code of 
morals, as unscriptural as that of Joe Smith, or the 
Spiritualists, and more productive of evil than the 
doctrines of the Mormons and Spiritualists. They 
are so palpably wrong that they do away with 
the code given by our Saviour and the apostles, and 
say its day has passed, therefore it does not affect 
society in general, and perhaps has been in some 
degree a benefit, because it calls out the morbid, the 
vicious, the licentious, the weak, misguided, and the 
fanatical, and in this way society is succored and 
purified by those doctrines of the devil. But the 
abolitionists remain in good society and try to in- 
still their new code of morals into the minds of the 
pure, the virtuous, the unlearned in Scripture, and 
the unsuspecting and most pious, zealous portions 
of both church and state. They work with a zeal 
that is calculated to deceive. The manner of their 
proceeding is to agitate society by the question of 
slavery. They tell them of its great moral evil, 
that the slaveholders are murderers, robbers, and 
thieves, of the worst kind. 

On the morning preceding the evening the Penn- 
sylvania Hall in this city was burnt, I heard an abo- 
lition lecturer, by the name of Wright, tell a gentle- 
man from Baltimore that Gen. Washington was a 
thief, robber, and murderer, simply because he 
(Washington) was a slaveholder. This doctrine is 
universally taught by abolitionists of the Garrison 
school, and their object is to throw firebrands into 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 321 

society, and to prejudice the North against the South, 
and the South against the North. They are guilty 
of treason, murder, and theft. Of treason, by dis- 
obedience to the laws of the United States, and by 
resisting the same with violence and deadly weapons- 
and of murder and theft by persuading the slaves to 
run away, " and if their masters pursue them and 
attempt to t arrest them, to kill them just as they 
would a dog, and to steal their master's horses and 
money, if they can get it, and make their escape." 
But the most glaring part of the theft is, stealing 
slaves from masters. I know men who do this thing 
and boast of the success they have had ; and men 
who profess to be followers of our Lord. One told 
me, on a Sabbath afternoon, at his Sabbath school, 
that he had had as high as seventeen runaway slaves 
(run off from their masters by means of the under- 
ground railroad) hid in his garret at one time, all of 
whom they passed on to Canada on the railroad. 

I am of the opinion that this crime ought to be 
made next, if not equal, to the highest crime known 
to our criminal code. To say the best of it, it is as 
bad as murder in the first degree. When a man 
premeditates a murder, he is likely to make, up his 
mind to do it in the most expeditious way, that will 
prove safest to himself; therefore, does not torture 
his victim any more than he can help. But the 
underground railroad man doe* it in a more cruel 
manner. He first decoys his victim from his home, 
and does it by flattering words of freedom ; he tells 
him of the cruelty of slavery — of its enormous wick- 
edness — the hardships he has to undergo, and when 



322 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

be is old and past labor, will be killed and thrown 
out. On the other hand, of the glories of the free 
States and of freedom ; the happiness they will have, 
and of the rich fruits and abundant harvest of the 
free States ; of political and social freedom ; that he 
will be on an equality with his neighbors, and that 
the further he goes north, the better his condition 
will be — the greatest friendship and affection is 
shown to him* So the poor ignorant slave is com- 
pletely deluded, and at once becomes dissatisfied 
with his condition, and anxious to be free. 

I will here insert a report of an abolition meet- 
ing held in Boston the other day, and the wonderful 
exploits of a female conductor on the underground 
railroad. I have no doubt she was induced to think 
she was doing God's service by this cruel act. See 
as follows : — 

" A Female Conductor of the Underground Railroad. — 
At the late Woman's Rights Convention, at Melodeon Hall, 
Boston, the most interesting incident was the appearance on 
the platform of the colored woman, Mrs. Harriet Tupman, who 
has been eight times South, and brought into freedom no less 
than forty persons, including her aged father and mother, over 
seventy years old. She had a prolonged and enthusiastic 
reception." 

The most noted point in this act of horror was 
the bringing away from ease and comfortable homes 
two old slaves over seventy years of age. Now 
there are no old people of any color more caressed 
and better taken care of than the old worn-out 
slaves of the South, except the wealthy whites, who 
are few in number. A much larger proportion of 
the Southern slaves live to very old ages than do 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 323 

the colored people of the North, or free States. Why 
is it so ? 1. Because they have regular employ- 
ment or labor ; 2. they have regular food ; 3. they 
have but few, or no hardships, and are never over- 
worked; 4. they are not dissipated, nor half so 
filthy in their living; 5. They are more cheerful 
and happy, and the climate is more congenial to 
their nature. The nature of the negro never was 
intended for the cold climates of America. 

On the other hand, the colored people of what is 
called the free States seldom have regular employ- 
ment ; if they could have, they would not. They are 
exceedingly irregular in their food, and generally 
have that which is unsuited to health, being mostly 
refuse. They are very dissipated and filthy, and 
have little or almost no employment ; and would 
not confine themselves to constant employment if 
they could get it. Those old slaves had earned 
their living while young, and a home for themselves 
when past labor, and had sat down at ease around 
the plentiful board of their master, whose duty it 
was to support them through old age, and see them 
well taken care of in sickness, and when dead to 
give them a respectable burying. This ignorant 
woman must have been persuaded and bewildered 
by flattery from some fiendish source, or she cer- 
tainly would not have been guilty of such a diaboli- 
cal act of wickedness and cruelty to her parents, 
who had a fortune laid up for old age, and had 
come to the time when labor had ceased to be re- 
quired at their hands, and were entitled to a peace- 
ful home with him whom they had served so many 



324 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

years, and where the laws of the State compelled 
him to give them that support righteously due them 
the balance of their days, and where they had friends 
to comfort and console them in declining life. 

Can it be possible that so large an audience of 
white people can be found in so high a civilized 
community, professing so much love for the poor 
slaves, who could applaud such an act of wicked- 
ness and cruelty in a child to her parents, as this 
certainly was ; and a thousand times worse than to 
steal young ones away ! I admit it to be a great 
act of kindness to the master, or the estate that had 
them to support ; and perhaps was a saving of some 
two hundred dollars a year to him or his estate. 
The notice does not say where she took them to; 
but we suppose as far north as she could get them, 
and altogether likely into Canada, where they 
have nearly six months of severe winter out of the 
twelve. I cannot conceive of a more wicked act 
towards parents. Confinement in the penitentiary 
for life would be " inadequate" to her crime, for 
stealing her old parents away from a good home 
and friends, and a living already laid up sufficient 
for all their wants; and from a warm climate 
altogether congenial to their nature, to a very cold 
one, and where there is nothing to depend on but 
their labor. And in a climate where the thermome- 
ter is in the neighborhood of zero four months out 
of twelve, and no master's wood-pile to go to; and 
no rich white man or woman to call them " Uncle 
Tom, and Aunt Lotta," whose fortune was protected 
by the laws of the State in which they had labored 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 325 

for their support. Yet an audience of white people 
professing love to the slaves, could applaud a being 
in human shape, for so cruel an act. 

I have been in Boston many times, and at all 
seasons of the year, and most people I have talked 
with seemed to be Christians of some sort, and men 
and women of very large philanthropy, and yet 
how in that city of education and refinement such an 
audience can be culled out is more than I can tell, 
unless the underground railroad passes through 
Apollyon's Kingdom, for certainly they cannot be 
altogether human, or such exultation could not be 
had over such wickedness in June, 1860. 

In the winters of 1851, 52, 53, 1 was in Boston, and 
could hardly go into a store or hotel without meeting 
some one with a subscription book that seemed to 
beg every one they met to subscribe some amount, 
to save the fugitive slaves in Canada from freezing 
or starving to death, and their stories of horror 
were enough to move the hardest heart ; and now, 
in June, 1860, those devils incarnate could clap their 
glad hands and shout over the report of two old 
slaves, over seventy years of age, having been stolen 
and abducted from good homes in a southern climate, 
and brought to and turned loose in the frigid zones of 
the north, to freeze, to death or starve with hunger. 
If the devil is any worse than that puritanic audience 
who assembles to hear the report of this wretched 
hard-hearted negro woman, I am sure it is a 
sufficient reason why I should strive to avoid his 
kingdom. 

I will ask those Puritans if that was in keeping 
28 



326 AFRICAN {SLAVERY. 

with the golden rule of our Saviour, quoted at the 
head of this chapter, or which were the greatest sin- 
ners, this negro woman and the Boston audience, or 
the master of those two old slaves? Eead the 
former chapters, in which I have fully set forth the 
moral questions of slavery, and then decide the above 
question. 

Who would have supposed the descendants of the 
Puritans who landed on Plymouth Kock in 1620, 
and who had been driven from their native land by 
infidel tyrants, because they determined to worship 
God according to the dictates of their own conscience 
could have so fallen. It was thought to be a happy 
day when the Mayflower, with over one hundred of 
those Puritan saints, arrived at Plymouth Kock with 
open Bibles ; but their descendants, like the good 
cow after she had given a large pail of rich milk, 
up foot, and kicked it over. Just so did the de- 
scendants of the Puritan saints, for it was soon 
discovered that they had imbibed so much of the 
tyrannical spirits of their fathers who had driven 
them from their native land to our shores for shelter ; 
consequently they turned tyrants, and persecuted 
the Quakers of New England even unto death, be- 
cause they desired to worship God according to the 
dictates of their own consciences, which differed in 
mode only from that of their Puritan brethren. 
This conduct of the descendants of the inhabitants 
of Plymouth Eock was sufficient to satisfy every in- 
telligent Christian, that they had totally backslidden 
from that true Christianity that sustained them 
under similar trials in their native land. 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 327 

Yet from the landing of those pilgrim fathers we 
date the birth of true Christianity in this country. 
But their sudden transition from infidel bondage to 
Christian freedom was too much for them, and they 
consequently overleaped the limits of religious 
liberty and soon became religious despots, and 
advocated the passage of such laws as would punish 
a man for kissing his wife on the Sabbath day, or 
expel him from church for happening to smile in 
church. And it was said they built their hen- 
houses so as to exclude the entire light of the sun, 
the brightest days, when the door was closed, and 
that they closed that door each Saturday night, and 
kept it closed until after twelve o'clock Sunday 
night, for fear lest the cocks would break the Sab- 
bath by crowing, or the scratching of the hens for 
their little ones would cause anger in heaven. 
Therefore it was hardly to be wondered at in the 
summer of 1860, that their posterity should all 
assemble at Melodeon Hall, in the city of Boston, to 
worship the goddess of liberty in the shape of a poor 
deluded negro woman. And sing and shout with 
the loudest acclamations of glory and honor to her 
for the performance of as cruel an act as ever was 
performed by a child towards parents. 

Did those religious fanatics " do as they would be 
done by ?" Did they "render unto Cesar the things 
that were Cesar's, and unto God the things that were 
God's?" 

But those demoniacs were harmless to both church 
and State, as long as both kept them at a distance ; 
but when both opened their doors to them officially, 



328 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

and invited them in for their money and votes, our 
die was cast and ruin sealed. And when ifhey were 
placed in power by the Constitutional votes of " We, 
the people" the blessings of heaven were withdrawn 
from us, and we are now entering a gulf of strife in 
which fraternal blood will flow as rivers, and unless 
we speedily spue out those Puritanic saints (devils) 
from power we shall speedily be plunged into the 
most terrible despotism ever known on this earth, 
yea, under the fangs of whose power every man and 
woman will be imprisoned who may refuse to wor- 
ship the "goddess of liberty" of Melodeon Hall, 
Boston. 

Those deluded Puritanic successors have now suc- 
ceeded to power, and the coronation took place the 
fourth of last March, and now we see the fore-shad- 
owing of a national overthrow more terrible than 
any history has yet recorded. The enormous 
amount of fraternal blood that will be shed during 
the present (republican) administration ivill cause 
the whole civilized world to wonder if there is any 
such thing as Christianity. ' How else can it be, 
when the descendants of the Puritan saints, who are 
now leaders of the so-called Christian ministry 
throughout New England, have, by trampling upon 
the Constitution and laws of the United States 
and by the foulest slanders ever heaped upon any 
people on the face of the earth, so completely alien- 
ated the hearts of our Southern brethren from us, 
that nothing but the overpowering grace and love 
of God can ever reunite the two extremes of our 
great country, without which our government is no 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 329 

more than a rope of sand. Take grace and love 
from the Christian church, and let such hate take its 
place as now exist between the North and South of 
our country ; how long do you suppose the church 
would stand ? 

There is but one road to a political salvation for 
us, and that is for all those Northern abolition fanat- 
ics to stop short, and " do to all others as they would 
have all others to do unto them." " For this is the 
law and the prophets." Without these Christian 
principles shall be fully established, there can be no 
such thing as a government by the people. Any 
attempt to force the South to love us will be certain 
destruction to our great national fabric that was marked 
out and "planned for us by no other finger than God's 
own finger ; therefore the slander and hatred. But let 
us restore the government by the principles embraced 
in the above text, which were the principles by which 
it was first formed, the only principles on which it 
ever can be restored, and without which it would not 
stand if restored. If the free States had always 
treated the South according to the principles em- 
braced in the above text, there would not be one 
secessionist this day south of Mason's and Dixon's 
line. As long as we lived by those principles we 
were inflexible, and all the powers on the face of the 
globe combined could not have affected us in war, 
because we were all, "We, the people" and God was 
our King. We were all one people, and the laws 
bore the same relation to the poorest hard-working 
man in the nation, as they did to the President of 
the United States, and he was only equally protected 
28* 



330 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

with the poor industrious man and no better, and 
owned no more law than the poor man. 

But the Chicago platform has been substituted for 
the Constitution and laws of the United States. 
Therefore the office holders are our supreme rulers. 
The Chicago platform is a rebellion by the free 
States against the Constitutional and lawful rights 
of all the slave States. The great Daniel Webster 
of Mass. declared all such proceedings to be treason 
against the United States government, in a speech 
he made at Albany, in 1851. Yet the Melodeon 
Hall of Boston was filled to overflowing by an in- 
fidel crew culled out of that city of education and 
Puritanism (a city that contains many as true, and 
as good loyal, national men as are in the United 
States), who clapped their glad hands, and shouted, 
"Glory to a black Goddess of liberty," not only 
for having committed treason against the United 
States government, but against the State govern- 
ments ; and for a theft of over §50,000 worth of 
property, besides robbing her aged parents of 
homes, where they had plenty of this world's goods, 
and friends without limit, and brought them into a 
country, heartless and cold towards the negro race, 
especially old worn-out ones. 

Now I ask all candid men to look at this con- 
gregation of traitors a little ; and see if the South 
had not reason not only to be insulted, but alarmed 
to the extreme, when they learned that enough such 
men and women could collect at Melodeon Hall in 
Boston in 1860, to densely fill it, who would laugh 
and shout over such wickedness, in a poor weak- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 331 

minded negro woman, in trampling upon the rights 
of the Sonth with impunity. What could be more 
insulting, after having lost over $50,000 worth of 
property by that deluded negress, than for a large 
congregation of white and well educated people of 
Boston to endorse such an imposition on the Con- 
stitutional rights of the slave States ? Had we any 
right to expect anything but a rebellion against a 
government that refuses to protect them against 
such outrages on their rights ? 

Suppose some negroes of the South had gone 
into MassaAusetts, and run off $50,000 worth of 
horses, and landed them safe in South Carolina, 
and two or three thousand citizens of Charleston 
had collected and endorsed the operation by loud ap- 
plause, and concealed the property from the owners, 
as the Bostonians did the forty negroes, what would 
the Yankeys have thought and said ? Then sup- 
pose this game had been going on forty or fifty 
years without abatement, and even constantly on 
the increase, until millions of dollars worth of our 
horses had been run off) and when we should go 
for them, we should have found seven or eight of 
the slave States had passed laws that completely 
forestalled the Constitutional laws of the United 
States and made it next thing to impossible for us 
to recover our property ; and in addition to that, 
they should have turned a large gang of negroes 
loose against our free white citizens, and mobbed 
them out of the State, or shot them dead on the spot, 
for going down there to recover their own. What 
should we have thought of it ? Should we have 



332 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

borne with, it for fifty years ? Now I ask all can- 
did men to look this thing fair in the face, and 
answer me the question, should we not have re- 
belled against the government long before this, if 
the circumstances had been reversed as above ? 

It is all nonsense to say the South has done 
any worse than what we should have done under the 
same circumstances. The fact of the matter is : cer- 
tain leading men in the free States have been aiming 
to produce a rebellion for forty years, and had the 
South not loved the Union a thousand times better 
than the Melodeon Hall assembly, they *yould have 
seceded ten or fifteen years ago. Every man and 
woman who has studied human nature to any extent, 
and had a thorough knowledge of the movements of 
the abolitionists or disloyal people of the North or 
free States, have been looking for this rebellion to 
to take place since 1850 ; for as soon as the fugitive 
slave law was passed by Congress, in that very year, 
some of the free State Legislatures amended their 
personal liberty bills so as to overthrow or defeat, 
its action, if possible. Several of the free States 
rebelled at once by Legislative acts against the law 
of the United States, passed for the security of the 
South. This assertion is proved by the personal 
liberty bills passed in several of the free States. 
If you do not agree with me that this rebellion 
was forced upon us by the free States rebelling 
against the Constitution and laws of the United 
States, I shall yield all hope of this great Union 
ever being restored, and shall look for a military 
despotism to be permanently established, that is 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 333 

now only temporarily upon us. There were not 
only free State laws passed against the national 
laws, but associations were formed all over the free 
States to defeat the Constitutional laws of the 
United States, many of whom pledged their lives 
that those laws never should be executed in their 
respective neighborhoods; and employed the free 
negroes and fugitive slaves to aid them in the exe- 
cution of their treasonable designs. And perhaps 
one-half of all New England pulpits constantly 
echoed the loudest declamations against those laws, 
and the rights of the southern people, attended with 
the foulest slanders ever heaped upon any people, 
by any man or set of men. I say, under these cir- 
cumstances (in connection with the success of that 
very party in the national election of 1860, on 
a platform containing the clearest treason which 
the whole party was pledged to sustain at all 
hazards), we had no right to have looked for any 
thing else but a rebellion and a civil war. We have 
brought it on ourselves by not doing " as we would be 
done by." 

I will say, in conclusion, that the South did not 
desire to rebel against the government of the United 
States, only so far as the United States officials 
refused to protect the slave States in their Constitu- 
tional rights by not making them equal with the 
free States. They only intended to rebel against 
the executors of the national government (and all 
others) who were chosen from that class of people 
who had declared themselves against the civil in- 
stitutions of the slave States. As Seward (now 



334 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

Secretary of State) said, " slavery must and snail be 
abolished, and we can do ■it. 11 Mr. Lincoln said one 
year before his nomination, that " this is a world of 
compensation, and he who would be no slave, must 
own no slaves. He who denieth freedom to others 
deserves it not for himself, and under a just God he 
shall not long retain it." 

Between sixty and seventy republican members 
of both houses of Congress endorsed with their own 
signatures and by their own baud in 1859 the fol- 
lowing sentiments : — 

" Ineligibility of slave-holders. Never another vote to the 
trafficker in human flesh. No co-operation with slave-holders 
in politics. No fellowship with them in religion. No affilia- 
tion with them in society. No patronage to slave-holding 
merchants. No guestship to slave-waiting hotels. No fees to 
slave-holding lawyers. No employment to slave-holding 
physicians. No audience to slave-holding parsons. No re- 
cognition of pro-slavery men except as ruffians, outlaivs, and 
criminals. Abrupt discontinuance of subscription to pro- 
slavery newspapers. Immediate death to slavery, if not 
immediate, unqualified proscription of its advocates during 
the period of its existence. A tax of sixty dollars on each 
and every negro in his possession at the present time, or at 
any intermediate time between now and the 4th of July, 
1863," &c. &c. 

This is a correct quotation from Helper's book, 
that was endorsed by nearly all the republican 
members of both Houses of Congress. This, taken 
in connection with the John Brown raid that was 
arranged to take place just at the right time to 
produce the greatest and most alarming effect upon 
the minds of the people of the slave States, did pro- 
duce an alarm and consternation unsurpassed. Those 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 335 

republican members of both Houses of Congress 
who did not endorse Helper's book with their signa- 
tures, mostly defended those who did by all the 
powers they possessed. Let any candid man read 
the quotation above, then turn to another page of 
the same, and read the names of all the endorsers of 
those sentiments, and get a copy of the Congress- 
ional Globe of that Congress, and see how strong 
most all other republicans endorsed them in their 
speeches, and denounced all who dared to condemn 
those sentiments. This is not a thousandth part 
of what has been said and written against the 
Southern people by leading men of the North. 

Now, think of human nature, and tell me, had we 
any right to expect anything but secession and re- 
bellion in a country like this, where the govern- 
ment was with the people ? And just as sure as God 
lives, we shall be humiliated, unless we speedily 
stop our rebellion and persecutions against the 
Southern State rights, and give them all that was 
conceded to them by the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion in 1787. The Southern people have never in- 
terfered with us, nor with any Constitutional law of 
the free States. I know a few leaders of South 
Carolina attempted to nullify a national law in 1832, 
and all other Southern Statesmen nullified them, and 
would this day still do the same to all such, had we 
not nullified the Constitution of the United States 
and the laws of Congress passed for the protection 
of the lawful institutions of the slave States, by the 
laws of many of the free States. I ask candid 
Christian men to say whether we had a right to 



336 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

look for anything but national, State, and individual 
overthrow, and social ruin. 

Whom has the present national executive called 
around him for his supporters and guides? Why, 
those very men who cordially endorsed the above 
declarations in Helper's book, and none others. 
Only think of it ! Read the sentiments over again, 
and suppose yourself to have been a Southern slave- 
holder, and then remember that the very men who 
endorsed those sentiments had succeeded in 1860 
in the election to the Presidency of one who had so 
recently declared in writing to that party, that he 
who refused to free his negroes should be made a 
slave himself, and that speedily. Could any family, 
social circle, or any volunteer association or com- 
bination either religious or political, hang together 
under such circumstances? Look at it and bring 
it home to yourselves. Remember that the Presi- 
dent has surrounded himself with the most ultra of 
the endorsers of Helper, and exhausted his patron- 
age with them; and will give no man an office of 
the most paltry kind, who refuses to endorse Helper 
entire; and by so doing he has laid a sickle with 
two edges at the root of the best and most whole- 
some government ever formed since the one for our 
first parents in Eden. Every Christian man and 
woman, who knows anything of human nature, 
knows that a volunteer government must be volun- 
tarily sustained, or fall into ruin. But Mr. Lincoln 
was selected by the endorsers of the above declara- 
tion from Helper's book. Read over the quotation 
again, and in view of all these circumstances, say 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 337 

whether we had a right to have expected anything 
else than the threatening circumstances which are 
thickening before us. 

Don't stop to accuse me of being a secessionist, 
traitor, disunionist, or a sympathizer with rebellion, 
for there is not the slightest shadow of truth in the 
declaration, unless rebellion against the abolitionism 
of the free States be treason. 

Let the present administration and all other abo- 
litionists, including the worshippers of the black 
goddess of liberty of Melodeon Hall, Boston, " do as 
they would be done by ;" then we shall have peace 
throughout our great and glorious country, and the 
Union be restored in less than a month. 

" Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should 
do to you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the law and the 
prophets." 

The words of Jesus Christ. Don't forget to notice 
the words in the text, "all things whatsoever." 

I wrote about two thirds of this chapter in*1860, 
prior to the Presidential election, and the balance 
soon after the tiring upon the American flag by the 
rebels at Charleston. This is the reason why it first 
speaks of prospective ; then the appearance of present 
strife between the North and South. 



29 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Correspondence between Mrs. Mason of Virginia, and Mrs. 
Childs of Massachusetts. Mrs. Childs' Scriptural Quotations 
to sustain Abolitionism. 

Mrs.' Senator Mason wrote Mrs. Childs last fall, 
soon after the John Brown raid in Virginia, on the 
impropriety of the interference by Northern people, 
with the lawful institutions of the South, to caution 
abolitionists not to place the southern people into 
such imminent danger, by trying to get up servile 
insurrections in the South. Mrs. Childs answers in 
a long letter, justifying herself in her ungodly insur- 
rectionary work, in teaching southern slaves that 
they are as good as their masters, and should be in- 
subordinate, and by charging the southern slave- 
holder with the most infamous and foul crimes that 
ever were charged to the hearts and hands of human 
beings. She quotes largely from Miss Grimkee, said 
to be a daughter of Judge Grimkee of South Caroli- 
na, who came North (she said) to get clear of the 
sound of the lash, and bemoanings of the tortured 
slaves, that did not cease to sound in her ears from 
six in the morning until late in the evening. 

I have unfortunately lost fifteen pages of my 
manuscripts, in which I replied to the awful slanders 
( 338 ) 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 339 

therein made ; and as I have lost the letter of Mrs. 
Childs also, I have to restore them from memory. 
Therefore, can give only an outline of one or two 
stories. One was, that it was so common to whip 
slaves to death, that it was no more noticed than 
killing an animal, and that for the slightest dis- 
obedience. That it was an every day occurrence 
to strip men and women naked, and. tie them up to 
a limb by the hands, and draw them up until they 
were on tiptoe, and then give them five hundred 
lashes, and let them stand in that position for many 
hours, after having bathed them with salt and water, 
and then give them five hundred lashes more, and 
salt them again, and let them hang for some hours 
more, and cut them down. They frequently died 
under this torture, and no account taken of it. 

Again; after tying up men and women in the 
same position, they would take a large paddle made 
for the purpose, with holes through it, and paddle 
their naked bodies with it ; every hole in the paddle 
would raise a blister, at each blow, until the whole 
surface of the body would be a complete jelly, and 
then they would throw on the salt and water, for still 
greater tortures ; and that they frequently died under 
this mode of torture also, but no account taken of it 
by the authorities, and if they should happen to 
notice it, it would be passed over by a sham trial, 
and the parties discharged, or never call it up for 
trial. 

I have no doubt some could be found in the North 
weak enough to believe such enormities in crime. 
And I might believe such stories under some cir- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

cnmsfl - I no thoughtful person would be- 

• - 

rer this country, and 

aniu.- be. Every ma 

soon* the But 

I do not believe that any man in his right mind 

could en ven if it 

st : en d thing in - ts. And if the 

-- ■ 3 book • 

skin, and give a : hundred is hard as 

ive hundred more 
in the a very 

. and will conclude there k 
much labor for the trilling fiendish plea 
■ them when we remember t 
South And that 

r $lv :i. for 

:ne if 
.1. 
Is - man or woman is fool 

enough to believe ai Who v. 

r me 

.:. For I think I should corn- 
hard 
man or i 

.nnot 
I 

And if - 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 341 

tilings were sanctioned in the Bible, all such as Mrs. 
Chi Ids and Miss Grimkee would take the opposite 
track, and deny the truth of all such statements. 
What, a man to purchase negroes at $1000, §1200, 
and $1500 each, and then whip them to death, or 
maim them so that they would be of no use what- 
ever ? Would you believe that a man would pur- 
chase a thousand dollar horse and then whip him to 
death, or allow it done ? I thought Miss Grimkee's 
murderous stories were sufficient to murder them- 
selves ; though I am inclined to believe she only 
intended them as a burlesque on the monstrous 
abolition stories told and written by the thousand 
by other unscrupulous persons. And yet Mrs. 
Childs, of Wyland, Massachusetts, seizes upon them 
in her reply to Mrs. Mason, with an air of boast 
that would seem to a credulous mind to be sincere, 
and quoted the whole story, as though it had been 
the Gospel of God our Saviour. 

I still have the part of this chapter embracing 
Mrs. Childs' quotation from Scripture to sustain her- ■ 
self and Miss Grimkee, and to condemn slaveholders, 
which is sufficient of themselves to satisfy any man 
that reads the Scriptures for the truths therein con- 
tained, that the abolitionists know better, and that 
with the fact that they care nothing for the suffering 
of the poor free people of color, either North or 
South. And the hypocrisy of the Eev. Dr. Cheever, 
and all others that are laboring to abolish slavery 
in thi3 country, ought to satisfy any observing 
mind that it is not the slaves, or slavery, or slave- 
holders they care about ; it is evident they have 
29* 



342 ^ AFKICAN SLAVEEY. 

other objects in view than the abolition of slavery. 
Then what can their object be, you ask? It is for 
the abolition of the Constitution of the United 
States and the union of States, that the "Liberator" 
says is in " league with hell." (The Liberator is the 
organ of the abolition party.) 

Why should they want to break up such a coun- 
try and government as this that is the ante-chamber 
of heaven ? I ask the inquirer, why did the devil 
say to Eve " thou shalt not surely die?" was it not to 
prevent the Kingdom of God from ever being 
established on this planet, where he (the devil) had 
reigned, perhaps, many millions of years without a 
competitor? I answer that the abolitionists have 
the same object in view that the king of darkness 
had when he spoke to Eve, and said, " thou shalt 
not surely die." They hate God, and righteousness, 
and this government, because it is so God-like in its 
formations and aims, and (they) being the true 
Aping sons and daughters in spirit of the same old 
Apollyon. They take upon themselves every form 
of Christianity that they may effect the destruction 
of the Constitution of this great and glorious go- 
vernment, that he, their master, the devil, may reign 
supreme and without a rival on this globe of ours. 

I do not wish to be understood to say that the 
abolitionists are the only infidels on this continent ; 
for there is another set in the South called fire- 
eaters, who are the legitimate offspring of the aboli- 
tionists of the North, and they might be called the 
children of the devil, for they are co-workers with 
the abolitionists in the work of the destruction of 



AFRICAN" SLAVERY. 343 

this, the best government known under heaven. 
A government formed by God himself; for it was 
not in the heart of man to form such a one ; and no 
one in the Convention of 1787 intended to make it 
just what it is. But He interfered, and would not 
allow them to agree on any other form, and no one 
of them seemed pleased with it at the time. Every 
article in it seemed to be the result of compromise 
between the conflicting parties in the convention. 
And they at one time came to a dead lock, being 
completely gamed, and could not move one inch 
further. Here was a perplexing dilemma. No one 
seemed to see light. Some proposed to give up 
and fall back on the Articles of Confederation. And 
they sat and looked at each other with despair. 
And it was only when they saw that they could do 
nothing else, that a proposition was made to send 
for Bishop White to come and offer up a prayer to 
Him who saw their dilemma, and held them fast. 
The good Bishop arrived with his Bible in hand, 
took his stand on the platform, opened the holy 
book, read a chapter, and called upon them to unite 
with him in prayer. He knelt down, and with 
uplifted hands and heart, he stated the case to the 
great God of the universe, and implored his mercy, 
his blessing, and his direction in the great dilemma 
they had fallen into, and to lead them in the path 
of Union and love. When he was done, every- 
thing seemed changed. The sunlight of hope 
broke through the dark cloud that had benighted 
them. The spirit of love was visible in each face, 
and the Christian spirit of compromise was felt in 



344 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

every heart. From that time, each member of the 
convention seemed disposed to yield in part for the 
sake of an agreement, that the Constitution might 
be formed and adopted for the sake "of a more 
perfect Union" than that of the Confederation which 
was nominal and without ligaments. And they had 
little or no trouble after that prayer was ended. 
They formed the Constitution ; that is to the United 
States just what the Bible is to the Christian church. 
And woe be unto that party, or State, or confedera- 
tion of States that shall attempt its destruction. 

I have digressed too far from my subject, and 
will return after saying that if all the contending 
parties would now send for such a man as Bishop 
White, and in the same spirit that he was sent for, 
all contentions, disputes, and divisions would end 
in a week. 

Some persons may think I use very severe lan- 
guage towards Mrs. Childs, Miss Grimkee, and other 
great apostles of abolitionism. But if they saw 
the consequences ahead as I do, they would say — 
say on, for God's sake, and awake the people that 
they may see the deep black gulf of civil or ser- 
vile war that they are surreptitiously leading the 
nation into. But instead of giving us encourage- 
ment in foretelling the troubles and pointing out the 
way of escape to the rock of safety and universal 
'peace and union, they cursed us with bitter curses, 
and told us we were hirelings of the democratic 
party, and were working under false pretences, to 
enable them to elect their candidate to the Presi- 
dency. Many of the old Whig, American, and the 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 345 

People's parties having united themselves with the 
Eepublican party, who had dropt the name of aboli- 
tion, free soil, and anti-slavery, and taken the name 
of Eepublican ; which was about as consistent as it 
would be for an African negro to drop his title and 
take that of Anglo-Saxon. It was surreptitiously 
taken, and for purposes of deception. There were 
a few thousand in the North who saw the trick, and 
refused to take a part in the union with the Eepub- 
lican party ; who in order to destroy and defeat our 
movements to save this country from civil or servile 
insurrection, war, and anarchy, or an everlasting 
despotism. "We were accused of, and called every- 
thing bad, and nothing good. 

I wrote this chapter long before the election 
of Mr. Lincoln, but by some mishap, as before stated, 
I lost the first fifteen or twenty pages of manuscript 
out of forty-four, and now rewrite a part of it, after 
the election, from notes I made at that time ; there- 
fore, I cannot avoid alluding to -facts as they then 
were, and as they now are. When we told the peo- 
ple what would be the result of the success of the 
republican party in the election of 1860, we were 
called fools — cursed fools — locofoco lick spittles, whom 
they hired to do their dirty work, negro traders, pro- 
slavers ; and at least three hundred thousand men of 
the free States united" in those declarations, and that 
to vote for the Constitutional Union party would only 
be voting for the locofoco party, when they knew in 
their hearts that it was not so ; and the most of them 
only did it that they might succeed in electing a 



346 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

President by an exclusive sectional vote of the free 
States against the slave States. 

They were told by thousands of the best men in 
the free States what the result would be. But the 
leading Eepublicans only spit at us, and threw 
their dirty water upon us. And the same leaders 
after having secured the offices, and robbed the 
State treasury of this State of at least $500,000, and 
other corporations and associations of $500,000 
more by extortion, and the sale of their votes and a 
signature with the State seal, turned around and 
charge us Union loving men with being secession- 
ists and rebels against this glorious government, 
that would be a heaven-like Union was it not for 
abolitionism; and we are so strongly threatened 
with the hemp, that I, for one, conceit I almost feel 
the rope around my neck, and simply for proposing 
measures to try to settle this question without a 
most inhuman, unnatural contest between brethren 
of the same family, when, once fully inaugurated 
and seated, will be one of the most bloody ever 
known on this earth ; and when we have conquered 
them, it will be found that they are not subdued. 
And even if we should subdue them and bring 
them into the traces of the Union again, what will 
be the state of society ? Will fifty years bring us 
back again to where we were prior to the John 
Brown raid in Virginia ? See how demoralization 
has spread already. 

Talk even to some of our Christian ministers on 
the subject, and see if they exhibit anything of the 
spirit that was in our Lord while he sojourned here 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. . 347 

below. No ; you will find them full of fight and 
the spirit of revenge. I talked with one not long 
since, who at once bristled up, his eye filled with 
vengeance, and he said he would see the Union fin- 
der ed to atoms before he would yield- one tittle from the 
so-called republican principles. So the Christian 
church generally are becoming more or less de- 
moralized by the contest even now. If that is the 
case now, what will it be when this war shall be 
ended by the force of. arms, and our fathers, our 
sons, and our brothers have been slain ? Shall we 
love the South as we did before ? "Will there not 
be a bitterness of feeling that will not be wiped out 
only when this generation has been forgotten, and 
every page of history obliterated that shall truly 
record its scenes ? Our children's children will be 
more or less tainted with it. What a history it will 
be to hand down to our children, and grandchildren, 
and their successors. Of course they will take it 
for an example or precedent ; will it be such as our 
Lord left on record for us ? 

The abolitionists want to break up the union of 
States. I for one cannot now, nor ever shall, consent 
to a division of these States into two separate king- 
doms. All I asked for is, that all honorable and 
Christian means should be used before force, to try 
to settle the dispute, without a resort to arms. We 
have a record to cleanse, which ought to be done be- 
fore we ask our brethren to correct theirs. Let us 
first "cast the beam out of our own eye, that we 
may see clearly how to remove the mote from our 
brother's eye." We have laws in a number of the 



348 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

free States in direct opposition to the Constitution 
of the United States. This is enough to make the 
South to feel that she has the right to appropriate 
the whole instrument to herself, and to establish an 
independent government on its principles. After 
we have given them all their lawful rights under 
the Constitution, and then if thej still refuse to co- 
operate with us in the Union, I would then say 
make them do it at any cost. 

I have been told so often in debates on the dangers 
this Union was in, by ultra republicans, that they 
ivould let the Union slide. This was a very common 
expression through the campaign of 1860, aud even 
a member of Congress from the third district, I am 
told, said that he wo»ld see this government split to 
atoms before he would yield one inch from the late 
republican platform. If this is the spirit that is to 
"be shown by the party coming into power, terrible 
will be the result. It is not to be wondered at if 
the South should take the Constitution and appro- 
priate it to their exclusive use, when members of 
Congress abandon it, and take the Chicago plat- 
form in preference, and say they would see the 
Constitution flindered to atoms before they would 
yield one principle of said platform. 

Now in the name of heaven, what are we to ex- 
pect, when we find that members of Congress have 
no respect for the Constitution of the United States, 
and take a party platform for the government of 
this nation, adopted by a set of office seekers, who 
ore thirsting for power, place, and the public crib? 
May the Lord save the people ! Slavery has been 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 349 

made the machine for all this. What a convenience 
is made of the old patriarchal institution when 
there is not one word found on Scriptural record or 
reason that shows slavery to be a moral evil. 

Modern emancipationists say there are a great 
many sins not named in the Scriptures of truth that 
we know to be sins, and the sin of slavery was ne- 
glected or forgotten. I would ask if there is any 
sin named in the Scriptures of truth that is not 
condemned by the writers of the moral law ? If 
slavery be a sin, it is the only one that was so ex- 
tensively spoken of without having one condemna- 
tory sentence passed against it. They say card- 
playing was not mentioned, and many other sinful 
games. But card-playing is not mentioned at all, 
and it is evident did not exist in the time of the 
apostles. But no one will pretend to say that slavery 
did not exist, even as far back as Noah, Moses, Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, and notwithstanding this, there 
is not a single declaration or precept made directly 
or .indirectly against it. But swearing, or taking 
God's name in vain, lying, stealing, murder, adultery, 
fornication, and drunkenness, and all such are de- 
clared to be sinful and forbidden by the moral law, 
all of which were extensively practised in those 
days. For the evidence of which I will refer the 
reader to the first two chapters of this book. 

St. Paul never told the owners of slaves that they 
must set them free, or that they could not enter 
into the Kingdom of Glory hereafter ; not the slight- 
est intimation of the kind was given. Yet there 
was a moral connected with slavery as with every- 
30 



350 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

thing else. If a master treats his slaves as mere 
beasts of burden, and refuses to look upon them as 
men, he is a moral rebel, and will be held as such ; 
and God will judge him accordingly. But tells the 
masters how they must treat their slaves, and re- 
minds them that they have a master in heaven. 
The master must remember his slaves have the 
same infirmities caused by the same transgressions, 
and in addition to that the servant has the curse 
put upon Canaan to bear, caused by the sins of Ham 
against his father Noah, therefore they are to be 
bond-servants forever; and they merit the sym- 
pathy of their masters; and do not deserve to be 
treated merely as beasts of burden but as an un- 
fortunate man that is of great use to the world, 
made up of flesh and blood, soul and body, just as 
the white man is, and that it is sufficient to be a 
slave without being ruled with a rod of iron. That 
they must not be stinted in food and raiment, and 
he must make them as comfortable as circumstances 
will allow. The servants are affectionately told 
that they must render unto their masters due ser- 
vice, that by so doing they please God, and that it 
will be counted in righteousness. That their time 
belongs to their masters and must not be wasted, 
and if it is, it will be counted in unrighteousness. 
So the duties of each are equally set forth by St. 
Paul, and both will be held equally, accountable 
for their doings towards each other, in the great and 
final day of reckoning. 

But the Apostle nowhere teaches that the ser- 
vant is to be placed on an equality with his master 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 351 

in this world. But the supremacy of the master is 
set forth everywhere in the Bible. Yet the apos- 
tles of abolitionism teach another and different doc- 
trine. They tell the slaves to be disobedient to their 
masters, and not render unto them good service, for 
none belongs to them ; that their masters are thieves, 
murderers, and robbers, therefore run away, steal 
their masters' money, and their horses to make their 
escape, and if their masters attempt to stop them, 
kill them as they would a mad dog. When he gets 
him away from his master who respected him, and 
cared for him, and watched over him in sickness, 
dressed his wounds, and soothed his heart under 
pain, he leaves him among strangers in a cold cli- 
mate, without money or friends, and he at once 
becomes an object of charity, but soon finds that 
there is no response. He is sick, and no doctor, 
no nursing mistress's soothing hand to wipe the 
sweat from his or her heated brow. No master's 
pocket to lean upon, nor wood pile to resist the 
piercing northwester. And that his hypocritical 
pretended abolition friend is always distant in the 
time of need. He is left to starve and die ; and no 
one to drop a tear upon the plank, brick pavement, 
or virgin earth on which he may be stretched to die. 
Now I ask which teaching of the two is the most 
Christ-like, or human, and common sense-like? Tell 
me which is the most merciful, the teachings of St. 
Paul, or that of the abolitionist ? Throw off your 
prejudices ; look the subject fair in the face ; think 
of the common lot of the whole human family, and 
make up your mind from sound unbiassed reason 



352 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

and common sense, and say which is the most God- 
like, or which is the most demon-like. I must be 
allowed to think every candid seeker of the truth 
will say St. Paul's doctrine is the most Christian- 
like and reasonable. I think it would be better for 
him who takes so strong a stand against the Bible 
and the United States government to be careful. 

I have said enough about the usefulness of slaves 
in previous chapters, to which I refer the reader. 

Through the fall from Eden the whole earth was 
corrupted, and the torrid and frigid zones, the blast- 
ing winters, the burning summers, and all that is 
unpleasant was produced through the sin of Adam, 
and so, also slavery, for usefulness in the tropics. 
Man is in fault, therefore he must submit to the 
direful and variegated consequences. The African 
race, as slaves, are one of the offsprings of sin, but 
not sin in itself, and his lot is before him, and he 
will have to submit. And if the Anglo-Saxon race 
attempts to change the decrees of God, God may re- 
verse the curse ; and terrible will be the day when 
negro slaves shall become the masters of those who 
have interfered with God's arrangements among 
men — better for him he had never been born. He 
may look upon the highwayman, the pickpocket, 
the burglar, the swindler, and the deceiver and rob- 
ber of the widow and orphan with contempt, hatred, 
and condemnation, and even feel that such persons 
would be a blackening disgrace to a midnight assas- 
sin's gallows ; but I look upon him as their equal 
in crime, and will stand on the same ground in the 
day of judgment, and perhaps on a higher scale of 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 353 

crime than any others, for he just as much robs men 
of their own, as the pickpocket does when he slips 
his hand into his neighbor's pocket and steals his 
money and appropriates it to his own use. The 
slave is held by the same moral law to render faith- 
ful service to his master, not as a man-pleaser, but 
" with singleness of heart, doing the will of God." 
His time righteously belongs to his master, and if he 
wilfully wastes it, by neglecting to do duty to his 
master as a good servant, he robs his master of what 
belongs to him just as much as a pickpocket would 
in stealing another man's money, and is equally 
guilty before God, and will be so judged by the 
moral law, and he who persuades him that his mas- 
ter has no right to claim his labors, and tries to 
dissatisfy his mind with his condition as a slave, and 
persuades him not to render service, is worse than a 
thief, for he not only encourages robbing the master 
of what belongs to him, both legally and morally, 
but he is a traitor to the laws of his country. 

How men professing Christianity, and say they are 
called by the Holy Ghost to preach the everlasting 
Gospel of God, can be modern abolitionists, I cannot 
understand. I can well see how infidels can be fol- 
lowers of Wm. L. Garrison, especially those who 
deny the Bible being the word of God, and know 
nothing of the nature of the negro ; but those who 
embrace the Scriptures as the revelation of God, 
know they have no right given them in that book to 
declare slavery to be a sin against God. Therefore 
it is a new code of morals started up for which 
there is no warrant given in the Scriptures, and is as 
30* 



354: AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

demoralizing as the doctrine of Joe Smith ; or those 
of the Spiritualists; and all such have done ten 
times the mischief to both church and state that 
could be done by the Mormons or Spiritualists. 
The Mormons separate themselves from all others, 
and unite themselves as a separate people, and 
openly declare Joe Smith a prophet and great high 
priest ; but the abolitionists remain in good society, 
and there promulgate their doctrines of infidelity, 
and split up churches and good society, distract 
neighborhoods, and whole State Legislatures, and 
have now well nigh destroyed our national govern- 
ment, and are likely to plunge us into a civil war 
in the prospect of which they now exult, and say, 
better this should all take place a thousand times 
than that slavery should be allowed in any part of 
this country. 

It was and is, as I have said before, a very com- 
mon reply to the declaration that the Union was in 
danger, "let the Union slide.'' 1 There was no ex- 
pression more common through the late political 
struggle by republicans, than " let the Union slide, 17 
and " I would see this Union and government s])lit into 
a thousand atoms, before I would yield one letter from 
the Chicago platform." Leading men of the aboli- 
tion stripe did thus reply whenever they were 
warned of the infinite danger the Union was in by 
the course they were pursuing in politics. 

I have known professing Christians for more than 
twenty-five years, who have been laboring to obli- 
terate the Constitution of the United States, that 
they might be able to separate this great Union, that 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 355 

the slaves of the South might clear themselves of 
their masters ; and ministers of the Gospel have pro- 
claimed those doctrines from the pulpit, and de- 
nounced slavery, and slaveholders as murderers in a 
most vehement and vindictive manner, right in the 
keeth of all the patriarchs, prophets, our Saviour, and 
4he apostles, all of whom encouraged slavery and 
slaveholders, from Noah to St. Paul ; and Paul never 
failed in a single instance to declare the right of the 
master to the earnings of their slaves, and plainly told 
the slaves that they must be diligent in their service 
to their masters. That in so doing they were doing ser- 
vice to God ; that he must not waste his master's time, 
for he cannot do this and be a child of God, and not 
the least intimation given anywhere to the contrary. 

I presume Dr. Adam Clarke's opinion will have 
some influence on most minds, or ought at least. He 
being a foreigner, and so much opposed to slavery, 
that he said there was no punishment adequate to 
the sinfulness of slavery. Please examine his opin- 
ions at full length on all the following passages of 
Scriptures. John Wesley said some hard things 
against slavery, but at the time he said it, it is cer- 
tain he had little or no knowledge of American 
slavery, but had a full knowledge of the British 
slave trade, which was then the sum of all villainies. 
There is not a doubt but Wesley and Clarke both 
alluded to the cruelties of British slave trade, that 
was not prohibited but carried on by that govern- 
ment to an enormous extent at that time. 

For a long while after Wesley passed his terrible 
anathema against slavery he ordained slaveholders 



356 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

in the West Indies, and set them apart for the min- 
istry of Christ, and baptized their children, know- 
ing them to be slaveholders, and that the children 
would be heirs to slaves, and not one single word 
expressed against it by Mr. Wesley. 

Dr. A. Clarke, and all others whom I have con- 
sulted, show clearly in their commentaries that 
American and English slavery is the same as ex- 
isted in the time of the apostles, and the great 
probability of its existence throughout all time. 
But they do not attempt to turn a single passage 
of Scripture to condemn it as a moral evil or sin 
against God, notwithstanding their great personal 
opposition to slavery, and when Dr. Clarke said there 
was no punishment adequate to the crime of slavery, 
he must have had reference to the British African 
slave trade, and not to common slaveholding, such 
as is legalized in our Southern States, and recognized 
by the Constitution of the United States. No true 
follower of our Lord, who reads the New Testament, 
and is capable of understanding jfi, will embrace 
this false code of morals, that slavery is a sin against 
God under all circumstances. Mrs. L. Maria Child, 
of Wayland, Mass., in her letter to Mrs. J. C. Mason, 
wife of Senator Mason, of Yirginia, herein alluded to, 
quoted eighteen passages of Scripture in reply to, 
or as an offset to some very appropriate passages 
quoted by Mrs. Mason, in her letter to Mrs. Child. 
Mrs. Child is said to be a lady of uncommon talents, 
possessing great knowledge of the Scriptures, and 
is held up as the great champion of this new moral 
code of Garrison, Wright, Abe Kelley, and others. 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 357 

Therefore it is evident, if she has produced nothing 
from the Holy Scriptures that proves slavery to be 
a moral evil, it cannot be done. I will now examine 
her quotations and see how much they prove. 
She commences as follows : — Heb. xiii. 3d. 

" Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them ; 
and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the 
body." 

This certainly has no reference to common sla- 
very, but refers to those who were in prison for 
preaching the gospel of God our Saviour, and not 
the slightest allusion to common legal servitude, or 
involuntary labor, for an individual or master; 
but that they should feel for those in prison as they 
would have those to feel for them if circumstances 
between them were reversed. I will refer to A. 
Clark on this verse. 

2d quotation, Isa. xvi. 3, 4 : — 

" Take counsel, execute judgment ; make thy shadow as 
the night in the midst of the noonday ; hide the outcast ; be- 
wray not him that wandereth. 

" Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab ; be thou a co- 
vert to them from the face of the spoiler : for the extortioner 
is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed 
out of the land." 

These two verses have not the slightest allusion 
to slavery as found in our Southern States. But 
Judah had been invaded by the Israelites, and 
defeated, slaying one hundred and twenty thousand 
men, nearly ruining his kingdom. When Judah 
began to recover, and becoming more prosperous, 
he seemed to be called upon to receive and protect 



358 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

the fugitive Moabites, that, perhaps, were scattered in 
the time of battle. I think any candid person will 
say there is no application to American slaves in 
this quotation, nor to fugitive slaves from the South. 
The context makes the text quoted clearly some- 
thing else. 

3c? quotation, Deut. xxiii. 15, 16 : — 

" Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which 
is escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with 
thee even among you in that place which he shall choose in 
one of thy gates where it liketh him best : thou shalt not 
oppress him." 

This quotation doubtless has an allusion to some 
sort of slavery. Dr. A. Clarke says this "is a servant 
who left an idolatrous master, that he might join 
himself to God and his people. In any other case it 
would have been injustice to have harbored the runaway." 
It is clearly set forth in Scripture that a legal owner 
of a slave has a moral right to claim his service 
anywhere, and ought not to be prevented from 
taking him back to where the law made him a slave, 
and any laws passed by the free States to prevent 
a man from another State recovering his slave that 
has run away, is a crime. We have just as good 
a right to pass a law making it legal to take 
every Southern man's money from him that comes 
into our midst, and appropriate it to our own use ; 
or seize their vessels and appropriate them to our- , 
selves, or to protect a mob in doing it, as we 
have to protect them in rescuing a fugitive slave 
from his legal owner or his agent. The several 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 359 

quotations I have made from St. Paul's letters to 
the churches make this clear. 

Aiih quotation, Pro v. xxxi. 8-9 : — ■ 

" Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as 
are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righte- 
ously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy." 

Those verses, perhaps, allude to poor persons ac- 
cused of crime, who have not the language to plead 
their own cause, nor the money to pay counsel. And 
no application to American slavery can be drawn 
from it by any course of reasoning whatever ; for 
the slaves of the ■ South are not oppressed, nor 
"dumb," nor "appointed to destruction," neither are 
they " poor and needy." 

5th quotation, Isa. lviii. 1 : — 

" Cry aloud, spare not ; lift up thy voice like a trumpet, 
and show my people their transgression, and the house of Ja- 
cob their sins." 

This verse is also foreign to the subject, and con- 
tains no allusion whatever to the subject matter in 
dispute. 

6th quotation, Col. iv. 1. I will refer the reader to 
what I have said on this text, in Chapter II. of this 
book. 

7th quotation, I think will satisfy the reader that 
Mrs. Child was not honest, and has undertaken to 
do what she knew she could not do, that is, to sup- 
port a bad cause by the Holy Scriptures. She 
quotes from Matt, xxiii. 8th and 10th. Why did she 
not quote the 9th also ? I will quote the 8th, 9th, 
and 10th, and every reader will see clearly why she 
left the 9th out. 



360 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

" 8th. But be ye not called Rabbi : for one is your Master, 
even Christ ; and all ye are brethren. 

" 9th. And call no man your father upon the earth : for one 
is your Father, which is in heaven. 

" 10th. Neither be ye called masters : for one is your Mas- 
ter, even Christ." 

I think comment on the above is not necessary, 
for every reader will see that there is no reference 
to common American slavery, and the teaching of 
our Lord in the above verses has no allusion to the 
relation of master and slave, but to the Head of the 
Church ; that he himself is the Head, and no one 
else can be, and it would be treasonable for any one 
else to attempt to place himself there. Therefore 
they are forbid calling any one master besides Christ 
himself. 

Why did Mrs. Child quote the 8th and 10th 
verses of the above chapter, leaving out the 9th? 
Simply because in the 9th we are forbidden to call 
any one our father upon the earth, because we have 
a Father in Heaven, which is Christ Jesus. How 
perfectly ridiculous it would be for us to forbid our 
children calling us father, because of the language 
of our Lord in the 9th verse, and it is just as ridicu- 
lous to say a slave should not agree that his owner 
is his master, and therefore refuse to call him mas- 
ter ; and Mrs. Child has just as good a right to for- 
bid the relation of parents and children under the 
moral law of the 9th verse, as she has to forbid the 
relation of master and slave, because of the precept 
contained in the 8th and 10th verses. And from 
those three verses it would be just as consistent with 
common sense or moral law, to establish a party or 



AFKICAN SLAVEKY. 361 

association to prevent parents from controlling their 
children, or to run the child off on an underground 
railroad from his or her parents, as it is to oppose 
the relation of master and slave from anything con- 
tained in the above quotation. 

Children are held as the property of their parents 
by the civil law, and if there was not a civil law 
giving the parents the full control of their children 
until they are twenty-one years old, they could not 
compel them to remain with them for any period. 
In this country the age is fixed at twenty-one years 
for the parents to have full control of their children. 
In Spain I think the law fixes the maturity of the 
child at twenty-five years ; and if I am not mistaken 
in some countries they are held by the civil law 
under the control of the parents a much longer 
period. The right of the parents to control their 
children and put their earnings in their own pocket, 
is sustained by the moral law, as well as the civil, 
and I believe by all the civilized nations of the 
earth ; and I don't know any association that has 
ever been formed to oppose the moral and legal 
claim of the parent to the child during his mino- 
rity. 

Yet the 9th verse above, according to Mrs. Child's 
reasoning, forbids the lawful relation of parent^and 
child, and that the child should not call any man 
his father ; or in other words, should not submit to 
the government of its parents ; for this doctrine is 
just as fully taught in the 9th verse as the anti- 
slavery doctrine is in the 8th and 10th verses. For 
slaves are held by the same human laws to the mas- 
31 



362 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

ters that children are to parents. And if the doc- 
trine of the abolitionist is sustained in the 8th and 
10th verses, then no parent can, under the moral law, 
sustain a claim upon his children. And according 
to the abolition creed and teachings, no civil law 
should be respected when that law interferes with 
£he liberties of any part of the human race. 

8th quotation, Matt. vii. 12 : — ■ 

" Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should 
do to you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the law and the 
prophets." 

I don't know that I ever held a conversation on 
the subject of slavery with an anti-slavery man who 
did not boastingly quote this passage from our 
Lord's exhortation. This certainly is one of the 
most sublime precepts of the whole gospel code; 
and if every man would only take it upon himself 
to follow it, or be governed by it, troubles and 
disputes between men would be at an end, and the 
South would not be under the necessity of making 
laws to prevent the abolitionists from stealing their 
slaves, which would be a most glorious achievement 
for this whole country. 

The meaning of this text is obvious to every un- 
prejudiced mind; and every slave-holder would be 
willing to enter into a covenant with all modern 
abolitionists to keep this precept to the strictest 
letter. But abolitionists seem to think that they 
are not bound by this precept, and that it is a rule 
that only works one way, and seem to forget, while 
they require the masters to set their slaves all free 
under this precept, that the masters are calling upon 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 363 

the North under the same rule to let them alone. 
There is only one rule to explain this passage, and 
that is as follows : — " Do as you would be done by." 

In order to decide righteously on this, you must 
reverse your circumstances and place yourself en- 
tirely where the slave-holder is, with all the con- 
comitant circumstances through which he became, 
and still is, a slave-holder, and then ask yourself 
the question, how would you have Northern abolition- 
ists to treat you on the subject. This is the only 
righteous rule by which we can come to a righteous 
application of this text. 

This brilliant precept of our Lord ought to silence 
every true follower of His on this negro question, 
except those who, after having reversed situations 
with the slave-holder as above, and then makes up 
his mind that he would have the abolitionists to call 
him a thief, robber, and murderer, and run his 
slaves off to Canada on the underground railroad by 
$10,000 worth at a time. Even then that man has 
not the right, according to this precept, to call all 
the slave-owners robbers, thieves, and murderers, 
and to steal the slaves away from their masters, and 
then let them starve and die among strangers, be- 
cause it would not be a reversion of circumstances 
as they are. I think all honest unbiassed minds will 
agree with me on this quotation. 

I will respectfully refer Mrs. Child and her 
followers to the first five verses of this chapter, and 
hope they may be read with prayerful hearts. 

Quotation 9th, Isa. Iviii. 6 : — ■ 

" Is not this the fast that I have chosen ? to loose the bands 



364 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens and to let the op- 
pressed go free, and that ye break every yoke ?" 

Dr. A. Clarke says this verse alludes to the slave 
trade; but I cannot see any allusion to that business; 
for I do not believe a greater crime can be com- 
mitted than to buy human beings, and drive them 
through the country like cattle, and sell them 
among strangers, without respect to the treatment 
they may receive. I believe men will be held 
responsible at the bar of God for all such crimes. 
When a man has more slaves than he can make 
useful to himself, it is his religions duty to choose a 
master for that servant, with the same care he would 
for his own child that he wanted to send away to 
learn a trade. He should know the man to be a 
good man to his servants. And if he sells his negro 
to whoever shall give the most for him, without 
respect to his future welfare, he will be held respon- 
sible to his Maker in the great day of accounts. 
The servant's future welfare should be looked to, 
and not the highest price that could be got. 

I believe this verse has reference to the moral 
conduct of the Jewish nation; they made loud profes- 
sions in public that they did not practise in private, 
and they were very overbearing and selfish. They 
perhaps taxed the people more than they were able 
to pay, and binding burdens, and laying them on 
other men's shoulders, too intolerable to be borne, 
such as they were not willing to touch with the end 
of their finger. And no doubt they extorted duties 
from surrounding tribes, over whom they had, by 
supreme power, extended their government, that 



AFRICAN" SLAVERY. 365 

was more than they could pay. The slave trade 
could uot have been included in this precept. 

Every American who has read the Declaration of 
our Jndependence, will have some idea of oppression, 
and the opiurn war between England and China 
some few years ago will have some idea of the bonds 
of wickedness alluded to in this verse. 

Quotation 10th, Joel iii. 3. 

" And they have cast lots for my people ; and have given a 
boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might 
drink." 

This verse certainly has reference to treatment to 
the Jews while in captivity. Their sons and 
daughters were traded off for wine and necessaries 
of life, and they were used for the most brutal pur- 
poses. It has no reference to common slavery of the 
Africans. 

Quotation 11th, Pro v. xiv. 31. 

••' He that oppresseth the poor, reproacheth his Maker ; but 
he that honoreth him hath mercy on the poor." 

This verse is so foreign from the question at issue, 
that I am surprised that Mrs. Child should have 
quoted it. The slaves in the southern States are not 
oppressed; they are fed and clothed, and the hap- 
piest people I have ever seen, and have no concern 
about the future of this world whatever. Their 
masters attend to all their business for them, and 
feed and clothe them. They are not oppressed, for 
they want nothing. But he who persuades the 
slaves to run away from their masters is a thief and 
an oppressor of the poor in the strictest sense of the 
word; and he that winks at it is no better. 
31* 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

Quotation 12th, Prov. xx. 22, 23. 

"Say not thou I will recompense evil; but wait on the Lord, 
and he shall save thee. 

23. Divers weights are an abomination unto the Lord, and a 
false balance is not good*" 

Whatever Mrs. Child sees in this quotation to 
condemn slavery or slaveholders she can enjoy it; 
I can see nothing touching the subject whatever. 
But I would advise Mrs. Child to be careful that 
she does not make out a false balance in her own 
favor, for such things are an abomination to the 
Lord. 

Quotation ISth, Jer. xii. 13. 

" They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns ; they have 
put themselves to pain, but shall not profit. And they shall 
be ashamed of your revenues, because of the fierce anger of the 
Lord." 

This verse is quoted also to condemn slaveholding, 
but I think the reader will see that it condemns the 
abolitionists just as much as it does slaveholders 
and a great deal more. 

Quotation l&th, Eph. iv. 28. 

"Let him that stole steal no more ; but rather let him labor, 
working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may 
have to give to him that ueedeth." 

I think Mrs. Child ought to call the attention of 
all the underground railroad companies to this text, 
and urge the Christ-like precept home to their every 
heart ; for if she can prevail upon all people, white 
and colored, male and female, North and South, to 
respect this text, we shall have but little trouble on 



AFKICAN SLAVERY. 367 

the slave question. Remember that man stealing is 
a great crime against God. 
Quotation 15th, Isa. x. 1, 2. 

"Wo unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that, 
write grievousness which they have prescribed, 
» 2. To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away 
from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, 
and that they may rob the fatherless." 

Those verses, no doubt, allude to certain laws 
made for extortion. "Unrighteous decrees and 
grievous writings" has reference to taking the labor- 
ing classes or surrounding tribes, that had been 
overpowered and made subjects, and then taxed 
them more than they were able to pay, which is 
condemned throughout by the Holy Scriptures, but 
it is a very different thing from American slavery. 
A slave gets more for his work than any other la- 
borers, generally ; he has his board and clothes, and 
a house to live in, and his doctor's bills are all paid. 
His wages goes on while sick, even his nurse is paid, 
and all his tobacco bills, and taxes by his master ; 
and he gets all this for doing about one-half the 
work that any white man does that works at all ; 
and it is no matter if he (the slave) has a wife and 
ten children, they are all supported by the master, 
and he does not have to work one. minute more on 
their account, and he takes " no thought for to-mor- 
row," and has no concern about the future. He is 
not called upon to provide for winter or lay up for 
sickness. The only concern he has is to prepare for " 
death and judgment, and there is reason to believe 
that many thousands are laying up for themselves a 



368 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

very large fortune, where it cannot be taken from 
them. I will repeat that they are theJiappiest peo- 
ple I have ever seen. But oppressive rulers will 
have a large account to settle some day, and that is 
the class alluded to in the above quotation. They 
taxed them more than they were able to pay, and- 
many times, under all such oppressive laws, their 
personal tax takes nearly all the man's earnings, and 
he is left without support to his family. There is 
no such oppression in our southern States. But if 
abolitionists ever get the power, we shall learn by 
sad experience the meaning of this text. 
Quotation 16th, Job xxx. 13, 14 : — 

" They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they 
have no helper. 

" They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters ; in 
the desolation they rolled themselves upon me." 

These verses had reference to war, no doubt, 
either to cutting off retreat, or obliterating the 
guides for an attack. The 11th has reference to a 
besieged city, a storm, fight or slaughter. There is 
not the slightest allusion to slavery such as is found 
in our Southern States. 

Quotation 17th, Job xxii. 9, 10, 11 : — 

" Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the 
fatherless have been broken. 

u Therefore snares are around about thee, and sudden fear 
troubleth thee ; 

"Or darkness that thou canst not see; and abundance of 
waters cover thee." 

I think these verses have a strong allusion to dis- 
honesty or hardness of heart, and would bear 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 369 

much harder "upon the conduct of the underground 
railroad company, than upon a large majority of the 
slave-holders. There is nothing in the three verses 
that condemns slavery, or slave-holding. 
Quotation 18th, James v. 4 : — 

" Behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down 
your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth : and 
the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears 
.of the Lord of Sabaoth." 

The precept in this verse is a good one ; it has 
reference to laborers, and clearly sets forth that it is 
not honest to hire a man, and after he has done 
your work, to withhold his wages. This is a sin of 
the worst kind. But a slave is not meant, for he 
gets the worth of his labor. If you pay the volun- 
tary laborer all off at the end of every day, the four- 
fifths of them have to limit themselves in all the 
necessaries of life, and the larger the family the 
smaller the allowance, and a large majority of them 
cannot satisfy their wants, and with this they have 
constant fear of being thrown out of work, and their 
wives and children left to starve. But not so with 
slave laborers. They do not have to limit them- 
selves in food, they have no fear of being out of 
employ, and it is no matter whether they have a 
wife and twenty children, or no wife and no child- 
ren, their concern about this world is the same. 
Their bread is sure, and their pay certain. 

I think it will be admitted that Mrs. Child was 
driven to some extreme for Scripture, to have made 
those quotations. To say the most of them, but 
little could be got out of them that has any refer- 



370 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

ence whatever to the matter in dispute. They bare 
on all alike, they are general terms and not speeial. 
Mrs. Child is said to possess a talent far above 
mediocrity, and yet she has not produced one single 
passage that proves slavery (in the abstract) to be a 
moral evil. Her friends say she is fully conversant 
with the Scriptures from the beginning to the end ; 
yet after all her boast of "favorite passages of 
Scripture" to sustain abolitionists, she has produced- 
the above eighteen passages, and there is only one 
or two of them that has any reference to slavery 
whatever, and according to the best authorities they 
just as much prove that it is wrong to hire a man, 
and pay him his hire in silver, as it does to own 
African negroes, and give them all the necessaries 
of this life ; and it proves no more. So clear are 
the Scriptures on this subject that hundreds of ex- 
treme abolitionists have rejected them entirely, be- 
cause they do not condemn slavery. 

It is clear from the New Testament, that the 
Christian church is not to interfere with civil ques- 
tions. Her mission is to point out the ways of truth 
and righteousness, and make men as happy in this 
world as circumstances will permit, and to show 
them the way to eternal glory. Therefore our Lord 
refused to decide civil questions, as in Matt. xxii. 
15th-22d. The Pharisees took council how thsy 
might eutangle our Lord, by getting him to decide a 
question that did not belong to the Christian church 
that was maturing at that moment. Whether they 
knew the effect of getting him entangled in State 
matters or not, the great wicked spirit did know 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 371 

that it would overthrow the mission of the Saviour 
of the world ; and our Lord knowing that ; he care- 
fully avoided giving his opinion on the subject. 

" The Pharisees sent unto him their disciples with the Hero- 
dians, saying, Master, we know that Thou art true, and teach- 
est the way of God in truth, neither carest Thou for any man: 
for Thou regardest not the person of man. Tell us therefore, 
What thinkest Thou ? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cesar, 
or not ? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, why 
tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Show me the tribute money. 
And they brought unto him a penny. And he said unto them 
Whose is this image and superscription ? They say unto him 
Cesar's. Then saith he unto them, render, therefore, unto 
Cesar the things which are Cesar's ; and unto God the things 
that are God's." 

Now it seems clear to my mind that our Lord 
refused to answer this question directly, to show us 
that the church has nothing whatever to do with 
civil institutions, that do not interfere with the rights 
of conscience, and allow all men to worship God ac- 
cording to the dictates of their own judgments. 
And so far as I have learned, the masters of the 
Southern slaves have not at any time attempted to 
control the conscience of their slaves, or forbid them 
to serve the Lord, in their own way ; and a large 
majority of the masters pay liberally to have the 
gospel preached to their slaves each week ; and I 
believe they are not charged with dictating to their 
conscience, and the slaves are not required to work 
on the Sabbath day, and are taught that they should 
worship God according to the dictates of their own 
conscience. 

I will refer the reader to Paul's Epistle to Phile- 



372 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

mon, and I hope Mrs. Child and all other abolitionists 
will read the whole chapter with attention. 

It seems that while Paul was imprisoned in Eome 
for preaching Christ, he did not cease to preach the 
gospel ; and under his preaching, a servant by the 
name of Onesimus was converted by Paul, and be- 
coming a true child of God, he made it known to 
his spiritual father, " St. Paul," that he was a fugi- 
tive slave from the service of one Philemon. Onesi- 
mus became a great comforter to St. Paul, after his 
(Onesimus) conversion. Yet as soon as Paul learned 
that Onesimus was a fugitive slave, and had a 
Christian master, he rested not until he got Onesi- 
mus off to his master Philemon, with the epistle 
alluded to; though he needed Onesimus much to 
wait on him, but he could not consent to keep him 
there without his master's (" Philemon") permission. 
Therefore he started him with the letter to his mas- 
ter, and by that letter he intercedes between Phile- 
mon and his fugitive servant Onesimus, thereby fro 
get Philemon to pardon his servant, and if he would 
do so, and take him back to his service, he (Paul) 
would pay for whatever Onesimus might have 
taken from his master previous to his flight. See 
18th verse. " If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee 
aught, put that on mine account." 

How does this contrast with modern abolitionism, 
the underground railroad, the negro female con- 
ductor, and the Boston congregation alluded to in a 
previous chapter. 

In reference to the church, I think this epistle 
does settle the question, and clearly demonstrates 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 373 

that the church has nothing to do with slavery, only 
to see that her members, if slaves, should be faithful 
to their masters, and the masters to their slaves. 
The teachings of the New Testament are too clear 
to be misunderstood, and I believe every good man, 
who seeks for truth only, will understand it so ; and 
instead of making trouble between master and slave 
and running the slaves off on the underground 
railroad, and persuading them to steal their master's 
property, or kill him if necessary to make their 
escape, will teach the slaves how they should best 
serve their masters, and be the most useful to them ; 
that they cannot be true Christians, and wilfully 
neglect one duty to their masters. This was left on 
record by St. Paul ; therefore he who teacheth other- 
wise is an infidel ; and I think I have proved satis- 
factorily to every candid Christian man and woman 
that every circumstance connected with the African 
race down to the present day, fully sustains the 
preaching of St. Paul and proves that the descend- 
ants of Canaan were to be slaves or subordinates 
through all time, from Noah's declaration after the 
flood, over 4200 years ago, that Canaan should be a 
" servant of servants to Ms brethren" 

APPENDIX. 

I WAS charged with deception soon after the John 
Brown raid in Virginia, for my opinions, and was 
called a fool when I said the success of the aboli- 
tionists to national power would produce a civil war 
in this country, and destroy the Union of States. 
32 



374 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

This I said in the winter of '59 and '60. How 
stands the matter on this the first day of October 
1862 ? I add this little appendix merely as a re- 
membrancer. I am not disappointed in the result, 
neither do I think anybody else is who had given 
human nature and abolitionism an impartial study. 

I will now close this volume by giving^two letters 
from the pen of the Hon. Wm. Bigler of Pennsyl- 
vania, who was called upon in writing, by a number 
of his constituents, for the information given in the 
letters; I hope they may be examined with scruti- 
nizing attention, for they are written by one who 
knew the facts. 



LETTER I. 

Clearfield, September 29, 1862. 

Gentlemen : I am in receipt of your letter, and with plea- 
sure proceed to comply with your request. In doing this I 
shall endeavor to be brief, though it must be obvious that any 
thing like a full history of the proceedings of the United 
States Senate on the resolutions familiarly known as the 
Crittenden Compromise, and the occurrences incident thereto, 
cannot be compressed into a very short story. 

You can all bear me witness that in the addresses I have 
made to the people, since my retiracy from the Senate I have 
not sought to press this subject on their consideration in any 
party light — I have held that the government and country 
must be saved, no matter whose folly and madness had im- 
perilled them — that we should first extinguish the flames that 
are consuming our national fabric, and afterwards look up and 
punish the incendiary who applied the torch ; but as the 
subject has been brought before the community by a distin- 
guished member of the Republican party, for partisan ends, 
and statements made inconsistent with the record, it is 
eminently proper that the facts — at least all the essential facts 
— should be given to the public. 

It is not true that some republican members of the Senate 
supported the " Crittenden Compromise" and some opposed it. 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 375 

They opposed it throughout, and without an exception. Their 
efforts to defeat it were in the usual shape of postponements 
and amendments, and it was not till within a few hours of the 
close of the session that a direct vote was had on the proposi- 
tion itself. 

On the 14th of January they cast a united vote against its 
consideration, and on the 15th they did the same thing, in order 
to consider the Pacific railroad bill. 

But the first test vote was had on the 17th day of January, 
on the motion of Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, to strike out 
the Crittenden proposition and insert certain resolutions of 
his own, the only object manifestly being the defeat of the 
former." The yeas and nays on this vote were as follows : — 

Yeas — Messrs. Anthony, Baker, Bingham, Cameron, Chan- 
dler, Clark, Collamer, Dixon, Doolittle, Dirkee, Fessenden, 
Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, King, Seward, Simmons, 
Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson, and Wilson 
—25. 

Nays — Messrs. Bayard, Bigler, Bragg, Bright, Clingman, 
Crittenden, Fitch, Green, Lane, Latham, Mason, Nicholson, 
Pearce, Polk, Powell, Pugh, Eice, Saulsbury, and Sebastian 
—23. 

So Mr. Clark's amendment prevailed, and the Crittenden 
proposition was defeated. On the announcement of this re- 
sult the whole subject was laid on the table. 

This was the vote on which some six or eight Senators 
from the Cotton States withheld their votes, and of this I shall 
speak hereafter. 

It is true that, within a few hours after these proceedings, 
as though alarmed about the consequences of what had been 
done, Senator Cameron moved a reconsideration of the vote 
by which the Crittenden proposition had been defeated. 

This motion came up for consideration on the 18th, and to 
the amazement of everybody not in the secret. Senator Came- 
ron voted against his own motion, and was joined by every 
other Senator of his party. The vote is recorded on p. 433 of 
1st vol. Congressional Globe, and is as follows : — ■ 

Yeas — Messrs. Bayard, Bigler, Bragg, Bright, Clingman, 
Crittenden, Douglas, Fitch, Green, Gwin, Hunter, Johnson of 
Arkansas, Johnson of Tennessee, Kennedy, Lane, Latham, 
Mason, Nicholson, Pearce, Polk, Powell, Pugh, Rice, Sauls- 
bury, Sebastian, and Slidell — 27. 

Nays — Messrs. Anthony, Baker, Bingham, Cameron, Chan- 
dler, Clark, Collamer, Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Fos- 
ter, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, King, Seward, Simmons. Sumner, 
Ten Eyck, Wade, Wigfall, Wilkinson, and Wilson— 24. 

This vote was regarded by many as conclusive against the 



376 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

Crittenden proposition, for the reason that the Republican 
Senators, after full deliberation and consultation, had cast a 
united vote against it. I shall never forget the appearance 
and bearing of that venerable patriot, John J. Crittenden, on 
the announcement of this result. His heart seemed full to 
overflowing with grief, and his countenance bore the unmis- 
takable marks of anguish and despair. The motion of 
Senator Cameron to reconsider had inspired him with hope — 
strong hope ; but the united vote of the Republican Senators 
against his proposition showed him too clearly that his efforts 
were vain. 

The final vote was taken directly on agreeing to the Crit- 
tenden proposition on the 3d of March — one day before the 
final adjournment of Congress — and is recorded on p. 1405 of 
the Congressional Globe, second part. On this vote every 
Democrat and every southern Senator (including Mr. Wigfall, 
who voted against the reconsideration of Mr. Clark's amend- 
ment), voted for the proposition, and every Republican 
against it. 

As for the Cotton State Senators who withheld their votes 
on the 16th of January, so that Mr. Clark's amendment might 
prevail, I have certainly no apology to make for their mis- 
chievous and wicked conduct on that or anv other occasion, 
but if they are blameworthy for withholding their votes, and 
not sustaining the Crittenden proposition, what shall we say of 
the Republican Senators who, at the same time, cast a solid 
vote against it, as I have already shown ? It was no half way 
business with them — they aimed directly at its final defeat. 
Some of the southern Senators, on the other hand, who had 
withheld their votes on the 16th (Messrs. Slidell, Hemphill, 
and Johnson of Arkansas), by the 18th had repented their 
error, and cast their votes to reconsider and revive the Com- 
promise proposition ; but the Republicans persisted in their 
hostility to the end. 

Nor is it true that the votes of the Cotton State Senators 
with those of all the other southern Senators, and those of all 
the northern Democrats, could have saved and secured the 
Crittenden Compromise. They could have given it a majority, 
but everybody knows that the Constitution requires a vote of 
two-thirds to submit amendments to the Constitution for the 
ratification of the States. These could not be had without 
eight or ten Republican votes. But suppose the Constitution 
did not so require — what could it have availed to have adopted 
a settlement by a mere party vote ? It was a compromise be- 
tween the two sections that the exigencies required. The 
Republican was the dominant party in the North, and no com- 
promise or adjustment could be successful, either in the 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 377 

Senate or before the people, without their active support. 
They constituted one of the parties to the issue, and it would 
have been folly — worse than folly — to have attempted a set- 
tlement without their sanction and support before the country. 

But no one can misunderstand the real object of the Re- 
publican orators in parading the fact that six or eight South- 
ern Senators had, at one time, withheld their votes from the 
Crittenden proposition. It is to show that the South was not 
for it and did not desire a compromise, and hence the Repub- 
licans are not responsible for the horrible consequences of its 
failure. On this point the testimony is very conclusive, and I 
shall give it at some length, please or displease whom it may. 
If Republicans choose to take the responsibility of saying 
that they were against the proposition and determined to 
make no settlement, however we may lament their policy, no 
one could object to that position, as matter of fact ; but they 
will forever fail to satisfy the world that the South was not 
fairly committed to a settlement on the basis of the Critten- 
den proposition, or that the Northern Democrats would not 
have compromised on that ground had they possessed the 
power to do so. I am aware that there are plenty of Repub- 
licans who would still spurn to settle with the South on such 
conditions, as there are also radical fanatics who would not 
take that section back into the Union even on the conditions 
of the Constitution. They certainly can have no complaint 
against my views and sentiments. 

When Congress assembled in December, 1861, it was obvi- 
ous to every one who was at all willing to heed the signs of 
the times, that the peace of our country was in imminent 
peril, the natural consequences of a prolonged war of crimina- 
tion and recrimination between the extreme and impracticable 
men of the North and the South. The anxious inquiry was 
heard everywhere — " What can be done to allay the agitation 
and save the unity and peace of our country ?" Amongst those 
who were willing to make an effort to compromise and settle, 
regardless of sectional, party or personal considerations, consul- 
tation after consultation was held. The first great task was 
to discover whether it was possible to bring the South up to- 
ground on which the North could stand. Many and various 
were the propositions and .suggestions produced. But it was 
finally concluded that the proposition of the venerable Sena- 
tor from Kentucky (Mr. Crittenden) was most likely to com- 
mand the requisite support in Congress and before the people. 
These, together with all others of a similar character, were 
referred to a select committee, composed of the following 
Senators : — 

Messrs. Crittenden, Powell, Hunter, Seward, Toombs, Doug- 
32* 



378 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

las, Collamer, Davis, Wade, Bigler, Rice, Doolittle, and 
Grimes — five Southern men, five Republicans, and three 
Northern Democrats. The Southern and Republican Senators 
were regarded as the parties to the issue, and hence a rule 
was adopted that no proposition should be reported to the 
Senate as a compromise unless it received a majority of both 
sides. All the Southern Senators, save Mr. Davis and Mr. 
Toombs, were known to favor the Crittenden proposition. On 
the 23d of December, this proposition came up for considera- 
tion, and it became necessary for Messrs. Davis and Toombs 
to take their positions in regard to it, and I shall never for- 
get the substance of what both said, for I regarded their 
course as involving the fate of the compromise. Mr. Davis 
said, " that for himself the proposition would be a bitter pill, 
for he held that his constituents had an equal right with those 
of any other Senator to go into the common Territories, and 
occupy and enjoy them with whatever might be their property 
at the time ; but nevertheless, in view of the great stake in- 
volved, if the Republican side would go for it in good faith he 
would unite with them." Mr. Toombs expressed nearly the 
same sentiments, and declared that his State would aceept 
the proposition as a final settlement. Mr. Toombs also, in 
open Senate, on the 7th of Januacy, used the following lan- 
guage :— 

" But although I insist on this perfect equality in the terri- 
tory, yet when it was proposed, as I now understand the Senator 
from Kentucky to propose, that the line of 36-30 shall be ex- 
tended, acknowledging and protecting our property on the 
south side of that line, for the sake of peace — permanent peace, 
I said to the committee of thirteen, as I say here, that with 
other satisfactory provisions I would accept it." [Page 270, 
Cong. Globe, 1st.] 

In addition to my own testimony of what occurred in the 
committee of thirteen, I present extracts from speeches of Mr. 
Douglas and Mr. Pugh, bearing directly on this point: — 

On the 3d of Jan., in the course of an elaborate speech, Mr. 
Douglas used the following language : — 

. " If you of the Republican side are not willing to accept this 
nor the proposition of the Senator from Kentucky, pray tell us 
what you will do? I address the inquiry to the Republicans 
alone, for the reason that in the committee of thirteen, a few 
days ago, every member from the South, including those from 
the Cotton States [Messrs. Davis and Toombs] expressed their 
readiness to accept the proposition of my venerable friend from 
Kentucky, as a final settlement of the controversy, if tendered 
and sustained by the Republican members. Hence the sole 
responsibility of our disagreement, and the only difficulty in 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 379 

the way of an amicable adjustment, is with the Republican 
party." These remarks were made, as I well remember, be- 
fore a very full Senate — in the presence of nearly, if not quite 
all the Republican and Southern Senators, and no one dare to 
dispute the facts stated. 

Mr. Fugh on the 2d day of March, in the course of a very 
able speech, remarked : — 

" But suppose that Senator does promise me a vote on the 
Crittenden proposition : 1 have followed him for three months; 
I have followed my honorable friend from Kentucky [Mr. 
Crittenden] for three months ; I have followed my friend, the 
Senator from Pennsylvania, [Mr. Bigler] for three months ; I 
have voted with them on all these propositions at a time when 
there were twelve other Senators in this chamber on whose 
votes we could rely ; and what came of it all ? Did we ever 
get a vote on the Crittenden proposition ? Never. Did we 
ever get a vote on the peace conference proposition ? Never. 
Did we ever get a vote on the bill introduced by the Senator 
from Pennsylvania [Mr. Bigler] to remit these propositions 
to a vote of the people ? Never. They were not strong enough 
to displace the Pacific railroad bill, which stood here and defied 
them, in the Senate for more than a month. They were not 
strong enough to set aside this plunder bill you call a tariff. 
They were not strong enough to beat a pension bill one morn- 
ing. For three long months have I followed the Senator and 
others, begging for a vote on these questions ; never can we 
get it ; never ; and now I am to be deluded no further ; and I 
use that word delusion certainly in no unkind sense to my 
friend. 

" The Crittenden proposition has been endorsed by the al- 
most unanimous vote of the Legislature of Kentucky. It has 
been endorsed by the Legislature of the noble old Common- 
wealth of Virginia. It has been petitioned for by a larger 
number of the electors of the United States than any proposi- 
tion that was ever before Congress. I believe in my heart, 
to-day, that it would carry an overwhelming majority of the 
people of my State, aye, sir, and of nearly every other State 
in the Union. Before the Senators from the State of Missis- 
sippi left this Chamber, I heard one of them, who noiv assumes, 
at least, to be President of the Southern Confederacy, propose 
to accept it, and to maintain the Union, if that proposition 
could receive the vote it ought to receive from the other side of 
this Chamber. Therefore, of all your propositions, of all 
your amendments, knowing, as I do, and knowing that the 
historian will write it down, at any time before the first of 
January, a two-thirds vote for the Crittenden resolutions in 
this Chamber would have saved every State in the Union but 



380 AFKICAN SLAVEEY. 

South Carolina. Georgia would be here by her representatives, 
and Louisiana also — those two great States which, at least, 
would have broken the whole column of secession." 

Mr. Douglas, at the same time said in reply, " I can con- 
firm the Senator's declaration that Senator Davis himself, 
when on the committee of thirteen, was ready at all times to i 
compromise on the Crittenden proposition. I will go further 
and say that Mr. Toombs was also ready to do so." 

But if this testimony were not in existence at all, do we not 
all know that the great State of Virginia endorsed this propo- 
sition and submitted it to the other States as a basis of a 
final adjustment and permanent peace. It was this basis on 
which that State called for the Peace Conference which 
assembled soon thereafter. 

It was also endorsed by almost the unanimous vote of the 
Legislature of Kentucky, and subsequently by those of Ten- 
nessee and North Carolina. But it is useless to add testi- 
mony. The Republican members of the Senate were against 
the Crittenden proposition, and the radicals of that body were 
against any and every adjustment. When the Peace Con- 
ference had assembled, and there was some hope of a satis- 
factory settlement, it is well known that Mr. Chandler, Mr. 
Harlan and others urged their respective Governors to send on 
impracticable fanatics as Commissioners in order to defeat 
a compromise. 

In what I have said I have not intended to extenuate or ex- 
cuse the wickedness of the secessionists. Bad and impolitic 
as was the policy of the Northern radicals, it furnished no suffi- 
cient reason for secession, rebellion, and war ; but I believed 
most sincerely then as I do now, that the acceptance of Mr. 
Crittenden's proposition by one-third of the Republicans in 
Congress, at the right time, would have broken down secession 
in nearly all the States now claiming to be out of the Union ; 
and it might have been accepted without any sacrifice of 
honor or principle. So far as the common territory of the 
United States was concerned, it proposed an equitable parti- 
tion, giving the North about 900,000 square miles, and the 
South about 300.000. No umpire that could have been 
selected would have given the North more. 

If, then, it was a material interest and value we are con- 
tending for, it gave us our full share ; if it was the application 
of a political principle the Republicans were struggling for, 
it allowed the application of their doctrine to three-fourths of 
the estate that belonged to all the States and all the people. 
It expressly excluded slavery from 900.000 square miles, and 
allowed it in the remaining 300,000. The Republicans, it is 
true, had just elected a President, and were about to take 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 381 

possession of the Government ; but still the popular vote in 
the several States showed that they were over a million of votes 
in the minority of the electors of the United States. Being a 
million in the minority, if they secured the application of their 
principles to three-fourths of all the territory, was that not 
enough ? Could they not on that have boasted of a great 
triumph ? 

For a time these arguments and considerations seemed to 
have weight with the more moderate and conservative of the 
Republican Senators. Indeed at one time I had strong hopes 
of a settlement. But the radicals rallied in force, headed by 
Mr. Greeley, and "the current was soon changed. We were 
then met with the argument that the people, in the election of 
Mr. Lincoln, had decided to exclude slavery from all the ter- 
ritory, and that the members of Congress dare not attempt to 
reverse that decision. We then determined to go a step 
further and endeavor to overcome this obstacle ; and it was to 
this end, after consultation with Mr. Crittenden and others, 
that I myself introduced a bill into the Senate providing for 
taking the sense of the people of the several States on the 
Crittenden proposition, for the direction of members of Con- 
gress in voting for or against its submission for the ratifica- 
tion of the States, as an amendment to the Constitution. 

This was an appeal to the source of all political power, and 
would have relieved the members of all serious responsibility. 
The vote of the representative would have been in accordance 
with the votes of his constituents, either for or against the 
proposition. The only objection made was that it was some- 
what irregular and extraordinary. But the same men could 
not make that objection at present. Too many extraordinary 
things have since been done by their chosen agents. I be- 
lieved with the Senator from Ohio, as I believe still, that the 
proposition would have carried a majority in nearly all the 
States of the Union, but it shared the fate of all other efforts 
for settlement. Would to God our country was now in the con- 
dition it then was, and that the people could be allowed to 
settle the controversy for themselves under the lights of 
eighteen months' experience, of war and carnage, and count- 
less sacrifices of national strength and character. 

Very truly, your obedient servant. 

Wm. Bigler 



382 AFKICAN SLAVERY. 



LETTER II. 

Clearfield, Pa., November 1, 1862. 

My Dear Sir : In reply to your favor of the 30th ultimo, I 
have to say that you have been rightly informed. I do not in- 
tend to be a candidate for United States Senator at the coming 
election, and have so expressed myself to friends on all proper 
occasions. I have a number of reasons, public and private, 
for this course, one of which is that the Eastern and Northern 
sections of the State, make special claim to the Senator, at 
this time, on the ground that we have one in the West 
recently elected, and cannot reasonably claim both for so long 
a term. 

The other question you ask, " what can be done to save the 
country," is not so readily answered. The usual response is, 
God knows. Few of our best thinkers seem to have any clear 
views on the question ; and it is not even certain that the 
Administration at Washington has a well defined policy to 
that end. I have some thoughts on the subject which I do 
not hesitate to give you. They may seem to you crude, and 
on some points even novel and startling; but they are the re- 
sult of some reflection. 

The sword is the only agency at work. But the sword can- 
not do all. It is an agent of destruction. It can tear down 
but cannot build up. It may chastise and silence the rebels 
in the field ; but it cannot make a union of States ; it cannot 
restore confidence and fraternity amongst a people estranged 
and alienated from each other. If the war was against the 
leaders in the South only, as many at the beginning supposed, 
then the sword might put them down and the masses could 
return to their allegience. But the conflict turns out to be 
with the whole mass of the people within the revolting States, 
old and young, male and female, numbering many millions. 
With such a power, sooner or later, we shall have to treat and 
negotiate. The sword alone will never restore this people to 
the Union. 

You well know that when the present calamities menaced 
the nation, I was for peaceful means to avert the blow. Then 
our present suffering and sacrifices could have been avoided, 
and as I believe, the unity of the States preserved for genera- 
tions, without the sacrifice of principle, or honor, or conscience 
on either side ; passion, prejudice and fanaticism only would 
have, been required to give way; and I still think, nay, 1 am 
sure that other means beside war are necessary to save our 



AFKICAN SLAVEKY. 383 

country — our whole country — from present afflictions and im- 
pending ruin. 

I know how easy it is to talk about war and carnage; about 
stratagetic positions and brilliant victories; about the prompt 
subjugation of the South by the North; even how pleasant it 
may be to some to float in the common current of excitement 
and passion ; and especially how unpleasant, if not unsafe it is 
to stem this tide. But the time is coming, if it be not now, 
when the public man who would render his country a substan- 
tial service must do this. He must look at the whole work 
before us, and strike for the right regardless of clamor or con- 
sequences to himself personally. 

We have had war for eighteen months', the like of which 
the world has seldom witnessed before. To sustain which a 
national debt of startling magnitude, which must hang over 
posterity long into the future, has already been created, and 
more than a quarter of a million of invaluable lives sacrificed, 
on the Union side alone, in addition to the many thousands 
that have been crippled or diseased for life ; and yet but little, 
if any substantial progress has been made in the good work of 
re-establishing the Union, or even of maintaining the Federal 
authority within the revolting States. Has not" then, the ex- 
periment of war, as a means of extricating the country from 
its present deplorable condition, been already tested — tested 
at least to such an extent as to prove its utter futility unaided 
by other means.. 

It was a happy thought of President Lincoln, expressed in 
his Inaugural, that if we went to war we could not fight 
always ; " and when, after much loss on both sides and no 
gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical.old questions 
as to terms of intercourse are again upon you." This pro- 
phetic and highly significant sentiment shows that even Mr. 
Lincoln, before the war began, anticipated the time, in case it 
did begin, when it would be necessary to put the sword to 
rest, at least for a season, in order to resume the identical old 
questions about intercourse and settlement. It does not seem 
to have occurred to him that the sword could do the whole 
work, but that inevitably we would have to come back to the 
original point to compromise and settle. If then, we cannot 
fight always ; what amount of fighting is necessary to render 
it proper to prepare to cease, or suspend in order to consider 
terms of reconciliation. There has already " been much loss 
on both sides and no gain on either," and whilst the time to 
cease fighting may not be yet, the period has surely come 
when other means besides the sword should be employed in 
the effort to save the government and country. Certainly 
the object of the war, and the extent to which it is to go, 



384 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

should be definitely known to the country. If it be intended 
to subjugate the States in rebellion, and hold them, not as 
States in the Union, but as conquered provinces, then the 
sword must be kept in constant motion, and war and carnage 
must be the order of the day. New levies and fresh supplies 
may be properly raised, for it will require a formidable army 
in each of the seceded States to execute and maintain this 
scheme. If extermination be the object, then the sword 
should have unrestrained license to deal death and destruction 
amongst the rebels, in all parts of their country, regardless of 
sex, or age, or condition. But neither of these purposes, if 
practicable, would re-establish the Union, although there 
might remain a Union composed of certain States. But, 
when the Union is re-established, the South as well as the 
North must be in it; the family of States must exist as here- 
tofore, else it will not be the Union about which we have 
talked so much and for which so many brave men have offered 
up their lives. The physical triumph of the North over the 
South in the field, as the North in the end, may triumph, is not 
the whole of the task. The -States must be brought together ; 
the feelings of the people of both sections must be so con- 
strained and moderated, that they can fraternize and live 
together, else the Union is gone forever. To subjugate the 
Southern States and so hold them, could subserve no good 
end for either section, and in no way, that I can discover, 
advance the welfare of the North ; for so long as the South 
was so held their hate of the North would increase, and whilst 
the North so held the South, it could do but little else ; mean- 
while its material interest must languish and die. But, in 
addition, such, a work is utterly inconsistent with the genius 
of our institutions^and could scarcely fail to lead to their utter 
perversion and ultimate overthrow, adding to the calamities of 
disunion, the sacrifice of free government. Conquest and 
empire, however magnificent, could not compensate for such a 
loss. 

To exterminate the inhabitants of the South, would be a 
deliberate emasculation of the Union, rendering its recon- 
struction at once impracticable and hopeless, and involve a 
work of barbarity, from which the Northern people would 
shrink in horror. The existence of the Southern States, in 
some form, with their inhabitants, and on some terms of inter- 
course, is highly essential, nay, I will say, indispensable to 
the welfare of the North. I am, therefore against extermina- 
tion, and against the policy of holding the Southern States as 
conquered provinces. This ground can be so easily main- 
tained on purely selfish considerations for the North, which 
will occur to all, that I need not trouble you with their pre- 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. % 385 

sentation on this occasion. I am for re-establishing the 
Union as it was, or making a Union as similar as practicable, 
the States to be equals, and to be sovereign to the extent the 
States now are, each to have and enjoy such domestic institu- 
tions as it may choose, and, were I in Congress I should sus- 
tain that measure of war and that only, that would clearly 
tend to the accomplishment of these ends ; but no war of sub- 
jugation or extermination. 

I know it may be said in reply to all this, then let the 
Southern people lay down their arms and come back into the 
Union, and all will be right again. Would to God they could 
be induced so to do ! There is no guarantee in reason that I 
would not be willing to grant them. But do we see any indica- 
tions of such a return to reason and duty? I can see none, 
and I expect to see none, so long as the sword is unaccom- 
panied by agents for settlement and peace. When our army 
went to Mexico it was accompanied by a peace commission in 
order to embrace the earliest opportunity for settlement. In 
God's name, I would ask, should we do less when engaged in 
a war amongst ourselves ? It is idle, and worse than idle, to 
delude ourselves about the nature of the conflict in which we 
are engaged. We cannot make a Union by force alone, 
though we may triumph over the South in the field, and we 
may as well look the complications square in the face as not. 
The first question is, do we intend — do we desire, to have all 
the Southern States back into the Union, on the terms of the 
Constitution? If we do, then it is seen that they are to be 
the equals of the Northern States, in rights, sovereignty, and 
dignity. Does any one believe that such a relation can be 
established and maintained by the sword alone ? Should a 
certain number of the States subjugate and humiliate the 
others, then they could*not live together as equals and friends, 
for the subjugated are always the enemies of the subjugators. 
When all the States, therefore, resume their former relations, 
or new relations of Union and intercourse, it must be the act 
of all, if the settlement is to be complete and permanent. 

I have heard a great deal about patching up a dishonorable 
peace — about the humiliation and disgrace to the North, in- 
volved in any and every proposition for settlement, and there 
is nothing that is said about the affairs of the country for 
which I have less respect. It is even held by some that he 
is a disloyal citizen who seeks to re-establish the Union by 
other means than the sword. How absurd ! The sword has 
been at work ; its agency has been tested — vigorously and 
terribly tested, and how stand the States now that should 
be in harmony ? The sad response is, where they were when 
the war began, arrayed in grim and relentless hostility. 
33 



386 • AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

Then, why spurn other agencies to aid in the good work ? In 
the words of Mr. Lincoln we cannot tight always, and we 
should not fight longer, unless we can do so as a means of 
ultimate union and permanent peace. 

What, then, can be done ? and I regret that all that should 
be done cannot be accomplished promptly. The States now 
in the Union should be in Convention, or have delegates ready 
to go into Convention, in order to reaffirm the present consti- 
tutional relations amongst the States, with explanations on 
controverted points, or to make such new relations as may be 
found necessary to bring together and retain all the States. 
The State Legislatures could petition Congress for such a 
Convention, as provided by the Constitution, and Congress 
could make the necessary provisions for it, before the close of 
the coming session. Such State legislatures as do not meet in 
the regular order could be specially convened ; and when the 
necessary number of States petition, it is obligatory on Con- 
gress to comply. The body thus constituted would be compe- 
tent to adjust and settle all the complications which now beset 
us. In the midst of war, then, we should be prepared to make 
peace. Whereas, when the time comes for settlement, in the 
absence of such a body, it might be found that we have no 
competent authority in existence to do the things that may 
be necessary. Neither Congress nor the Executive, nor the 
two together, have rightful authority to change the old or to 
make new relations amongst the States. Congress may sub- 
mit amendments to the Constitution for the ratification of the 
States, and I believe the present calamities of the nation could 
have been averted in that way in the winter of 18G1 ; but now 
the disorders of the country are probably too complicated to be 
reached in that form. 

Meanwhile, the President and Congftss should prepare the 
way for settlement; indeed, by consulting the people through 
the ballot-box, they might make a settlement, to be ratified by 
the States thereafter. Let the President propose an armistice, 
for the purpose of considering some programme of reunion and 
settlement, in which the feelings and rights of the masses in 
the South shall be duly appreciated and provided for. Invite 
them to come back on the conditions of the Constitution, with 
explicit definitions on controverted points, or on new condi- 
tions with the fullest assurance of justice and equality when 
they do so come. Let him do this, and challenge the rebel 
authorities to submit such propositions as may be agreed 
upon, to an unrestrained vote of the citizens of the Southern 
States, as he will, at the same time, submit such propositions 
to a vote of those of the Northern States, with the under- 
standing that if a majority of slave States, and a majority of 



'AFRICAN SLAVERY. 387 

free States accept the proposition, its conditions should be 
binding until ratified or superseded by the States. Suppose 
the Confederate authorities reject this, or any similar proposi- 
tion, no harm could ensue to the Northern cause. Such 
action would only leave them in a worse light before the world, 
and the Government at Washington in the better. The preli- 
minaries for such a movement could be readily arranged by 
commissioners selected for that purpose. 

It may be said that we are constantly inviting the Southern 
people to lay down their arms, and come back into the Union 
and this would seem to be conclusive; but it must not be for- 
gotten that they rebelled, because, as they say, the party now 
in power at Washington, would not permit them to enjoy, in 
peace, the real conditions and covenants of that Union, and 
that there is no evidence that they would fare better now. 
Beside, he has studied human nature to a poor purpose, who 
cannot discover that unconditional submission involves a de- 
gree of humiliation, to which they will never come so long as 
they have any means of resistance. In the effort to gain back 
even the masses, their passions and pride, and self-respect, 
may be wisely considered. We must give them some new 
ground ; some pretext, if not complete and substantial guaran- 
tees, before we can expect them to entertain the idea of for- 
saking their present leaders, and embracing the old Govern- 
ment. 

I am fully aware of the indignation and even contempt with 
which these suggestions will be perused, by some, in both sec- 
tions ; but I care not ; are we not engaged in an effort to 
re-establish and maintain the Union, and are not the seceded 
States to compose part of that Union? Then why not endeavor 
to rescue them from destruction, and cultivate good relations 
with them ? 

When the family of States again exists as heretofore, they 
must become our brethren and our equals in every particular. 
What pleasure, then, can we have in their destruction or hu- 
miliation. If there be any friends of the old flag and the old 
Government within the seceded States, they should cultivate 
the same spirit toward the North. The absent element of a 
substantial Union is fraternity amongst the people, and that 
can never be furnished by the sword. Again, in the words of 
Mr. Lincoln, " there has been much loss on both sides and no 
gain on either," and the identical old question as to terms of 
intercourse are upon us, and we should seek so to adjust them 
as to re-establish the Union on an imperishable basis. 

But, it may be asked, is this a war for the Union ? Are we 
sure that those in authority intend nothing else ? They cer- 
tainly profess nothing else, and I attribute to them nothing 



388 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

else. If the war is not for the Union, and is not directed with 
sole reference to that end, then it is the most stupendous fraud 
that has ever been practised upon the world. We all know, 
however, that many, very many of its partisans will not be 
satisfied with that issue. It might be very important, there- 
fore, to the salvation of the country, when the time for recon- 
struction comes, if ever it should come, to have the soundings 
on this point taken in advance. I should like exceedingly to 
see a popular vote taken in the North, especially in New ling- 
land, between the proposition to receive all the States back 
into the Union, on the terms of the Constitution, which makes 
the States equals and alike sovereign, each with the right to 
have such domestic institutions us ii may choose; and a pro- 
position to recognize the independence of the Southern Con- 
federacy. It might be interesting, as well as instructive, to 
unveil the hypocrisy of a certain school of politicians who 
have clamored so zealously about the war for the Union. It 
is painfully apparent thai notwithstanding this clamor, they 
do not intend that the Union shall exist hereafter on the terms 
of the Constitution, if it is to embrace all the States. The 
ratio of slave representation, and the rendition of fugitive 
slaves, are features of the Constitution which they condemn 
ami abhor. Between the maintenance of these and the recog- 
nition of the Southern Confederacy, many of them, in my 
judgment, four to one, would prefer the latter. Their aversion 
to these clauses of the Constitution were a primary cause of 
the alienation and hostility of the South, and 1 fear they would 
not yield that aversion now to render the Union what it once 
was/ Let Mr. Lincoln try this question if he would solve the 
problem of the nation's embroglio. 

Do not understand me that I would yield the sword or any 
other means to render the Union what it was. What I mean 
is, that if the Union, and that only is the object, the sword 
will never find the belligerents in a better condition to con- 
summate that work than they are now. and that other agencies 
should be promptly employed. I yield to no man in devotion 
and loyalty to the Union as it was, and to the principles of 
government transmitted to us by our fathers. The mainte- 
nance and perpetuation of these shall be the object nearest 
my heart, whether I be in private or public life. 

AVith much esteem, I remain, yours truly, 

Wm. Bigler. 

To S. D. Anderson, Esq., Philadelphia, Fa. 

I fully concur in all of the above sentiments, 

JOHN BELL ROBINSON. 



